Someone Should Tell eBay That Skype Just Lost 1.3 Billion Potential Users
from the bye-bye-China dept
As everyone is talking about how eBay may ridiculously overpay for Skype, the few defenders are pointing out what a huge market Skype could have. Well, it seems that that potential market has just shrunk by about 1.3 billion people. China is the latest country to ban Skype for fear of it eating into state-owned telco revenue. The thought is that the Chinese government may actually try to ban all kinds of VoIP. While most articles suggest the reasoning is to protect revenue, another perfectly reasonable explanation is that they're afraid of Skype because it lets people communicate without government oversight, something the Chinese government believes is dangerous. Of course, while they claim such communication may be dangerous to the citizenry, what they really mean is it may be dangerous to the government. Of course, it seems like it shouldn't be that hard for people to work out a way to get around the block by disguising/encrypting the packets in some form or another, because (once again) voice is just data in the end. Update: Thanks to Jeff Nolan for pointing out that the block is supposedly (currently) just around Shenzen, and saying that he has first hand knowledge that Skype is still working, even in Shenzen... So, the details of what's really going on still seem a bit fuzzy. Another update: Once again Jeff Nolan comes through with more details. Apparently the blocks only apply to SkypeOut calls that go to telephones. Still seems like a bad move.
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No Subject Given by Ivan Sick on Sep 9th, 2005 @ 10:04am
It is very dangerous to the citizenry. Of course, that's b/c the government wants it that way
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This crap is still happening in world.. by Jimi Spier on Sep 9th, 2005 @ 10:12am
The chinese should (for once) wear their ovaries on the outside and take control of their government.
I'm so tired of hearing about how the chinese can't do this or that.. If they are not going to change things then WHO CARES!
America was once controlled by another country and we kicked their asses..
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Taiwain!! by Richard Wan on Sep 9th, 2005 @ 10:41am
I am from Taiwan. I escaped to Africa, milked cows, and now am happy to be in USA. Point is, follow your dreams.
GO SKYPE!!!
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Re: This crap is still happening in world.. by boots on Sep 9th, 2005 @ 12:34pm
You my friend, are a moron
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how old are you? by Mick on Sep 9th, 2005 @ 2:27pm
They tried once and the government murdered thousands of protesters.
Yea, they should fight for their right to VOIP... Gimme a break.
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Re: This crap is still happening in world.. by Anonymous Coward on Sep 10th, 2005 @ 1:20am
Who? You mean the Red Indians??
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Re: how old are you? by amazon10x on Oct 20th, 2005 @ 3:54pm
Mick, your link was broken. It should've read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protest
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by Glenn Simon on Jul 18th, 2006 @ 2:02pm
1/ The British had five guys trying 2 hold on 2 north america, no one overly bright at the helm, and their indian allies couldn't be trusted. The AMEREEKENS got them while they were partying and besides, most of the limey's r wimps.
2/ How many Chinese have computers?? What happened in 10square was not every1 was in! Same here. Maybe 1 day it will happen.
3/ The AMEREEKINS should never look down on any1. In Vietnam, Korea, and North America (McCarthy), they were saving the world from communisum, and now, after having an easter egg hunt 4 weapons of mass destruction, they r trying 2 win another Vietnam. Some guys never learn.
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by françois on Dec 23rd, 2006 @ 12:46pm
I would like to point that currently, the policy of most wanna-be skype blocker is to filter only skypeout calls, not filter skype to skype, nor skype chat.
By blocking skype out, regulators make companies pay for a service that they use to cut their cost. But who pays at the end for infrastructures?
National Telcos have spent a lot on these costly pipes, because they thought they were going to get a return on their investment.
These regulations are not targetting the "poor" user but the big companies.
You can see this as a try to implement a tax on calls made mostly by corporations.
Furthermore, if look at skype as disruptive technology which radically changed the telecommunication landscape, you can also think as skype and P2P filtering technologies as disruptive as well. To actually filter and block such stealthy protocol, people in fact had to be very imaginative. Skype and P2P filtering solutions today involve machine learning, neural network, artificial intelligence, asynchronous filtering.
These monitoring and controling technologies are definitely here to stay, and will become even more prevalent, as everyone will use IP-based services, the need of controling their pipes will grow invariably.
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it isn't just skype out... by jose cocina on Oct 27th, 2007 @ 7:09pm
all the post of the internet currently seem to be saying the blocking is just on skype out or around shenzen. this is not the case. i can't log into skype at all, and i'm chongqing, and other people in the city are having the same problem. so unless it just a chongqing thing, i think that skype has been blocked across the whole country. bastards.
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Chongqing by Mich on Mar 18th, 2008 @ 8:20am
I chat to someone in Chongqing using skype on a regular basis. It wasn't until today, seconds after mentioning the recent protests about Tibet, that we were disconnected. I don't seem to be able to contact this person at all now.
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