Discover Ireland – in Second Life

Tourism Ireland has announced it will be hosting a series of promotional events in Second Life’s ’virtual Dublin’ to market Irish tourism to the community’s users.

The campaign is the first of its kind to be hosted in the ’virtual world’ Second Life by a real-world tourist board, and it will see a series of events take place online in the virtual Dublin between now and St Patrick’s Day 2008. A ’Discover Ireland Festival’ is set to take place this weekend (26-28 October), comprising live music on a stage located on ’Grafton Street’, as well as a fashion show and an exhibition of Irish landscape photographs. Big screens dotted around the ’city’ will show Tourism Ireland promotional videos.

The version of Dublin within the online simulation was created by John Mahon of PickSL and is already a well-established Second Life location for live music and DJs — occasionally making the top ten list of the most popular locations to visit.

Tourism Ireland spokesperson Sinead Grace told ENN that the main motivation for her organisation’s Second Life move was the fact that 60 percent of its users are located in the four biggest markets for Irish tourism: the UK, the US, Germany and France. "Because of this, it seemed like a good fit," she said. "It’s a unique and different hook for us and something we hope will catch people’s attention."

In a statement, Tourism Ireland’s director for central marketing, Mark Henry, said: "We are committed to using e-marketing to the best possible effect in promoting the island of Ireland as a holiday destination and our involvement in Second Life is about finding new ways to connect to today’s web-savvy consumer."

Tourism Ireland has doubled its digital marketing spend over the past three years. It currently spends a total of 14 percent of its marketing budget online, representing an investment of EUR6.5 million last year. This number is set to increase once again in 2008, with a quarter of the marketing budget has been earmarked for online activities.

Since its establishment in 2003, the so-called virtual community of Second Life, created by Linden Lab, has grown significantly and currently has more than 9 million registered users or ’residents’, 1.6 million of whom are considered regular users. Many major brands already have a presence there and, within the tourism industry, Starwood Hotels has used the virtual world to pilot the design of a new series of hotels, while travel agent Thomas Cook is offering virtual package tours to customers.

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PricewaterhouseCooper’s Global Entertainment and Media Outlook points to reasonable growth for Ireland’s thriving media industry over the next few years.

A combined annual growth of 5.7% and a collective worth of €2.98 billion is predicted according to this report which examines the prospects for the industry between 2007 and 2011.

The fastest growing sector will be internet access and advertising, which is set to jump by an average of 14.9% per year, 1.5% ahead of the global average growth rate. Ireland’s second biggest growth area is with video games expecting to rise by an average of 10.5% annually, 0.6% ahead of the global average growth rate.

The 5.3% annual growth rate in the newspaper industry that PwC is forecasting means that circulation, spending and advertising will break through $1billion by 2011.

Bartley O’Connor, associate director PwC said there was a very positive economic environment for the media and entertainment industry in Ireland and growth rates had reached 8.5% in recent years due to the increase in the number of television and radio stations, the introduction of free sheet newspapers and significant growth in broadband uptake.

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World AIDS Day Gets the Rose Treatment

Award-winning Irish fashion designer, Aideen Bodkin has designed a Rose t-shirt to commemorate World AIDS Day which takes place on December 1st 2007. One hundred percent of all t-shirt sales will go to The Rose Project, an Irish-based organisation that provides quality medical, nursing and psycho-social care for people living with or affected by HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa (www.roseproject.org).

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TV3 to sell adverts for Channel 6

TV3 is to take over the advertising sales for the fledgling Channel 6 station which is headed up by Pat Donnelly

A deal between the two stations has already been signed and it comes into effect from January 1st onwards. Channel 6 joins Living TV, which has been represented in the Irish market for the last year by TV3 sales and earns about €4 million per annum from Irish advertisers.
Channel 6 has been on-air since March 30, 2006 and is currently available to over 1 million homes in Ireland via analogue cable, Sky Digital, ntl Digital and Chorus Digital.

Daragh Byrne, head of sales, Channel 6, formerly sales manager of TV3, will head the business development end of the business. The deals means that TV3’s portfolio will gross around €80m a year, according to ad industry estimates.

On awarding the contract to TV3 sales, Pat Donnelly, managing director, Channel 6 said, "given the increasing diversity of the TV market and its complexities, this move, we believe, will deliver a positive proposition to advertisers and a more streamlined approach to airtime management for agencies. In turn we expect to see the benefits to C6 flowing through in cost savings and revenue growth over time."

The news comes at time when BCI short-listed the Ballymount-based station for the multicity radio licence on Monday. Furthermore, it plans to make a strong pitch for coveted live GAA rights later this month.

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PR Institute Welcomes Legislation Providing for Press Ombudsman and Press Council

Law will provide members of the public with redress in relation to inaccurate or erroneous reporting

The Public Relations Institute of Ireland (PRII) has today (Wednesday, 05 July) welcomed the decision of the cabinet to proceed with legislation providing for the appointment of a Press Ombudsman and a Press Council. The PRII President, Pat Montague, said that this law will provide much-needed redress for members of the public in relation to inaccurate or erroneous newspaper or magazine reporting.

“The PRII believes that by providing an effective and speedy form of redress, the introduction of this law will be good for our citizens and will be good for our print media. At the moment, members of the public are left with no effective form of redress in relation to such reporting apart from taking a libel action to the courts. However, the courts are a prohibitively costly route for most people to take and are not an appropriate means for addressing simple errors or mistakes made by newspapers.

“All of us in the media business know that the system of readers’ representatives, established to deal with such matters, is effectively non-existent. As a result, getting corrections made or rights of reply published can often take a lot of time and persistence and sometimes requests for corrections of factual inaccuracies are simply ignored or palmed off.

“Because of this experience it’s not surprising that a recent survey of the country’s public relations practitioners showed that 75% of us want to see the immediate introduction of legislation providing for the appointment of a Press Ombudsman and the establishment of a Press Council,” Montague said.

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Thinkhouse on trend with Wrangler

Following a competitive pitch, Thinkhouse, the Dublin based PR agency that specialises in youth communications, has added Wrangler to its brand portfolio.

Marking a new direction for the Wrangler brand, with a more urban, edgy focus, Thinkhouse will undertake a PR programme that includes media relations, events, sponsorship, new media, guerrilla and promotions for this global brand.

Wrangler joins Thinkhouse’s portfolio of fashion brands that includes Urban Outfitters; Swatch; Boxfresh; Kartel, MUJI; and The Loft directional fashion collective at Powerscourt Townhouse centre.

www.thisiswanted.euwww.thinkhousepr.com

Festival and RTE announce exciting new project – 50th Anniversary of the Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival

Four of Ireland’s most renowned playwrights join with four celebrated actors in a series of 90-second dramas to mark the 50th Anniversary of the Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival on RTE Television.

RTÉ will mark the 50th anniversary of the first Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival with a range of output across all its platforms.

On Television, RTÉ will present a special edition of The View presents… Meanwhile, Limelight, featuring four short dramas by some of Ireland’s leading playwrights, will air on RTÉ One, and will also stream on RTÉ’s dedicated Festival website www.rte.ie/dublintheatrefestival.

The website, which will stay live throughout the Festival from Thursday 27th September to Saturday 13th October, will contain event listings, reviews and exclusive daily video packages of all the news & views from the festival.

Meanwhile, RTÉ Radio will present a range of Festival related coverage.

The Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival is enjoying record sales and tickets are selling fast. The Festival runs from 27th Sept – 14th Oct at various venues.

Online newsagent to emulate iTunes

A new online newsagent is hoping to galvanise the Irish publishing market by selling magazines online.

Mymagonline.com, which is based in Dublin, is hoping to become the iTunes of the publishing world by offering readers PDF versions of Irish publications. These can be downloaded directly to a PC. The magazine appears on screen the way it does in hard copy format, and any interactive content is also provided.

The site is trying to tap into a growing audience. According to recent Nielsen/Netratings research, 83 percent of readers reading downloaded magazines online have never purchased a printed copy.

Current titles on offer include Irish Garden, PC Live and Car Buyers Guide, and the magazines are available for a discount, typically up to 40 percent.

"The service does for magazine publishing what iTunes has done for music, delivering magazines to readers in minutes with just the click of a mouse and providing publishers with a shop window on the web," said Barry Baker, chief executive of Mymagonline.com.

"Our aim is to deliver a wide range of quality magazine content to a time-poor target market, on a highly accessible web platform that has been designed to grow as our business does. Our offering complements traditional media outlets and allows content providers access to greater readership and expanded advertising."

The project has been set up with the cooperation of the Periodical Publishers Association of Ireland (PPAI), and will launch in the UK in 2008.

"Digital downloads is one of the new growth areas in content delivery. Whilst print is always at the core of our business, this service will make it easier for publishers to attract a new type of online reader, providing new opportunities for generating revenue through online sales and enhanced advertising," said Richard Power, chairperson of the PPAI.

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The Trailblazers are coming!

Branded as ‘Trailblazers’, the promotion is an imaginative partnership between six national tourist boards, established for the purpose of developing strong business relationships with the main Incentive travel producers. The central attraction of Trailblazers is that it provides a level of educational and business experience of sufficient quality to attract the participation of the principal figures from the top Incentive houses.

The event in Ireland will consist of a Superfam, in which participants will get first hand experience of the Irish incentive product, a one and a half-day workshop in which individual specialist operators and suitable product producers will have pre-arranged business discussions with the overseas participants, together with post-event tours and visits to facilities in various parts of the country.

Participating national tourist boards in Trailblazers are Great Britain, Canada, Monaco, Denmark, Switzerland as well as Ireland, all of whom will be represented at the Irish event, which will be centred at the Four Seasons Hotel in Dublin. Ireland was chosen as the venue for the 2007 event as a result of a successful bid prepared by Fáilte Ireland’s Business Tourism Unit and Tourism Ireland, followed by a site inspection by Trailblazer representatives from Britain, Canada and Monaco.

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Events and Conference & Banqueting Executive

We require an Events and C&B executive to work with a small team in one of Dublin’s busiest private member’s clubs.This is an excellent opportunity for anybody who is interested in gaining experience in both the buy side and the sell side of the business.You will be involved in both the event management side of the business for the members as well as the conference and banqueting side on behalf of the Club.You will be working closely with all members of the team including kitchens, porters, waiting staff and bar staff.

Events duties and responsibilities will include:

- Planning and executing current flagship events in the Club such as opera evenings, wine evenings, Christmas events.

- Devising new and exciting events for the members of the Club

- Marketing the events to the members

- Planning of the events with the team including

- Registration of attendees

- On the day event management

C&B duties will include:

- Booking functions rooms for members events

- Co-ordination of rooms

- Meeting with members to devise their requirements on the day including

- Communicating with the staff on upcoming events

- Working closely with the chef on menus and pricing

The ideal candidate would have:

- 1-2 years experience in a similar role

- Excellent communication skills

- Excellent telephone manner

- Strong administration skills

- An out-going and friendly personality

Location: Dublin

Salary: Competitive salary + benefits

Contact: send a copy of your CV together with covering letter to rebeccawalsh@sghc.ie

Sales Coordinator- Four Seasons Hotel – Dublin

Descriptions

- The ability to coordinate all group arrangements

- The ability to receive, process and review group rooming lists.

- The ability to work with group contacts to facilitate program planning

-The ability to complete Group Resumes on a weekly basis and distribute to relevant departments.

- The ability to communicate group needs and specifications to all departments in the hotel

- The ability to be attentive and responsive to group’s needs while in hotel.

- The ability to follow-up each group with Post-Conference reports and review group billing.

-The ability to input all group bookings, and update bookings activity on a weekly basis in Delphi.

-The ability to update sales database in Delphi.

-The ability to respond properly in any hotel emergency or safety situation

-The ability to perform other tasks or projects as assigned by hotel management and staff

-The ability to circulate group consumption.

-The ability to service groups.

-The ability to post and distribute the Group Rooms Control Report.

Location: Dublin

Salary: €28000

Contact: Sara Dalzell Sara.Dalzell@fourseasons.com

Operations Executive- Advertising

Description

Citybox is Ireland largest shopping centre medium and now have over 2300 advertising panels in 85 locations nationwide.

Role

The outdoor advertising industry works on a 2 week cycle. As mentioned above with 2000 panels nationwide the job of organising the logistics of ensuring prompt posting of new campaigns is a role in itself.

The primary responsibilities of the successful applicant will be ensuring efficient running of all campaigns from the time it is booked to the time it finishes. This will include ensuring prompt delivery of posters, organising and planning intelligent and tactical campaigns, getting the posters to the correct locations on time, and compiling and sending campaign reports to clients.

The role will also have an element of sales where the successful applicant will need to deal with clients both on the phone and in person.

Location: Dublin

Salary: An attractive salary and benefits package is offered commensurate with experience, including bonus, car allowance, paid holidays, social club.

Contact: brian@citybox.ie Tel: 01 4972522

Text 100 Dublin Internship position – PR Company

Text 100 is a global PR agency serving companies that use technology for competitive advantage. Built organically from the ground up, Text 100 uniquely offers the dedication of local agencies and the power and reach of a global agency, Text 100 represents leading brands in 31 offices around the world. Our Dublin office is offering an internship commencing in October/November. It’s a great place to start your PR career. As a Text 100 Intern, you will support several account teams. Typically you’ll be tracking press clips, assisting in research, maintaining media contact lists, and supporting media relations. This is a stepping-stone to becoming an account executive and a great way to learn the nuances of PR. Hours of work can be flexible. Please contact

Location: Dublin

Salary: Negotiable

Contact: conor.lynch@text100.com with your CV

Account Manager

Account Manager, Bespoke Communications A straight talking, switched on, hard working and passionate professional is required to join Bespoke Communications, an exciting and dynamic new consumer PR agency. An understanding of and genuine interest in traditional and new media is a must as is a positive attitude and a real passion for PR. The desire to apply fresh but grounded thinking to consumer brands is also desirable. If you think you have what it takes to join Bespoke Communications and be part of a team committed to the pursuit of the highest standards in public relations, we want to hear from you. Applicants must have a minimum of 3 years agency experience working on consumer brands.

Salary:Negotiable

Location: Dublin

Contact: Please send applications, in confidence, to Neil O’Gorman at neil@bespokecommunications.ie

Volunteers wanted- Opportunity to Gain valuable Event Experience

The Alzheimer Society of Ireland are this year celebrating 25 years of providing care and services for those who are living with Alzheimer’s and dementia in Ireland.

To celebrate, we are hosting our Inaugural Gala Ball. Taking place in the Shelbourne Hotel, in Dublin on the evening of November 16^th, it promises to be a wonderful night. The evening’s events will begin with a Drinks Reception before guests are led into the Great Room of the hotel for a sumptuous four course meal, followed by a Live Auction and raffle. Entertainment on the night will be provide by Boogie Nights who promise to get everyone onto the dance floor to strut their stuff!!!

In order for the night to be a success we need more volunteers to help us! There is plenty to do on the night such as room set up and decoration, registrations, meeting and greeting guests, selling and collection raffle tickets, spotting for the auctioneer, counting and securing any funds on the night and just being there to ensure that things go according to plan.

With over 250 guests expected on the night with a large portion of Corporate sponsors, this event is a wonderful way for Event Management students to come on board and get hands on practical experience of an event of this scale.

Location: Shelbourne Hotel Dublin

Contact: fundraising manager Ruth Matz, in the Alzheimer Society of Ireland on 01 284 6616.

Online Account Executive – Advertising and Marketing Agency

DMA is a leading Direct Response Advertising Agency, developing original, high impact, response-driven campaigns for Irish and international companies.The Agency works with many large and very successful companies including:

International Award Winning Agency

DMA has won numerous Irish and International awards for creativity and effectiveness. The company has just been awarded the Best Global Advertising Award by GE Money worldwide, for the second year running. (entries were reviewed from 54 countries).

The Role

You will be working with a very experienced team in a fast moving and creative agency.The position will involve thinking on your feet and developing creative mareting solutions for leading clients. If you have a marketing background and excellent knowledge of online and digital marketing techniques and media, then this could be a perfect role for you.

Responsibilities

- Working closely with an experienced team to develop, implement and co-ordinate exciting e-marketing and advertising campaigns for big brands

- Ensure day-to-day running of campaigns that span TV, press, radio, Direct, online and digital marketing.

- Working closely with clients at all stages from: concept generation, pitch, management, analysis, feedback and reporting

- Developing campaigns and presenting to clients

- Managing schedules for campaigns and working to tight deadlines

- The right candidate will have

- A solid understanding of the digital marketing environment with a passion for the Internet.

- Experience in organising and managing marketing campaigns would be an advantage

- Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written

- Preferably a 3^rd level marketing or other relevant qualification

- Proficiency in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and database applications

- In addition comprehensive ongoing training will be provided

Location: Dublin

Contact:Email your CV and Cover Letter tomark@dma.ie

All applications will be treated in strictest confidence

Events Coordinator

Cooke’s Restaurant is an up-market Mediterranean style restaurant ideally located directly opposite the Powerscourt Townhouse Centre.

We are currently looking for an office administrator to look after the day to day running of the office.

Office administration duties consist of calculating staff hours, liaising with accounts, calculating invoices, dealing with suppliers, ordering stationary, checking the daily cash sheets, doing the lodgements, Updating website (training given) & acting as PA to Johhnie Cooke, the owner.

Restaurant Administration duties include taking reservations for Cookes Restaurant, dealing with enquiries for the private function room, briefing kitchen on private functions, Coordination of functions for private groups with the client, the Head Chef and General Manager.

In addition we have an Event Catering arm. This role would be the first point of contact with the client. Duties include take the client brief, send menus, provide a quote, co-ordinate the logistics of the event with the chef & Event Manager and send the final invoice etc.

The working hours are 9.30 – 6pm Monday – Friday.

Knowledge of Microsoft Word and Excel are essential and experience in a similar position is desirable. This would be an ideal position for a recent graduate who would like to get hands-on experience in events and event management.

The ideal candidate will have a cheerful personality and a great telephone manner. You will also need to be well organised and have the ability to multitask.

Salary: Not Disclosed

Location:14 South William Street Dublin2

Contact:www.cookes1@eircom.net

Oct 1st – Racing, Prix de L’Arc de Triomphe

Oct 2nd – Yom Kippur – Day of Atonement

Oct 7th – Formula One, Chinese Grand Prix, Shanghai

Oct 13th – Euro 2008, Rep of Ireland V Germany, Croke Park

Oct 13th – 14th Rugby World Cup Semi Final, Paris

Oct 17th – Euro 2008, Rep of Ireland V Cyprus, Croke Park

Oct 20th- Rugby World Cup Final, Paris

Oct 21st -Formula One, Brazilian Grand Prix

Oct 26th – 28th Darts, World Grand Prix, City West Hotel

Oct 25th – 29th Ideal Homes Exhibition, RDS

Oct 26th – Cinema, Assassination of Jesse James

Oct 26th – 29th – Guinness Jazz Festival, Cork

Oct 28th – Summer Time Ends (clocks go back)

Oct 29th – Bank Holiday

Oct 29th – Dublin City Marathon

Oct 30th -Schools mid-term break

Oct 31st -Halloween

Hackers hit back at Apple update

The war between Apple and the hackers is heating up, after a "fix" for the recent iPhone update was posted online.

Apple’s recent update for the iPhone’s firmware rendered unlocked iPhones — those that had been modified either through software or other means to work outside of AT&T’s network — unusable, and the firm has so far refused to back down from its hardline stance.

As part of Apple’s lucrative contract with US network AT&T customers who want the iPhone must sign up for a two-year term with the network and Apple gets a share of revenue generated by consumers using the iPhones. The tech firm has signed similar money-spinning deals with the European operators — O2, T-Mobile and Orange — who will be selling the iPhones from November.

Apple had warned those who had unlocked their iPhones that their handsets would be rendered unusable come its next update, and indeed it stayed true to its threat with the update, released last week, turning the phones into little more than expensive paperweights.

Now though, it has emerged that hackers have found a way to reverse some of the update and restore a limited number of functions to the phone. However, although they have managed to get the iPod and Wi-Fi features working again, some unlocked and updated iPhones’ days as a mobile phone are still over — for the time being.

The reversal at present can’t undo the update to the baseband software, which controls the phone functions of the iPhone. So until hackers figure out a way to undo the update completely, iPhone users whose phones have been "bricked" have an expensive digital music player on their hands.

There are also rumours online of a class action suit against the firm due to the update. However, the suit may fail to materialise.

Apple, meanwhile, is facing another legal action, from a woman who is angry that the firm slashed the iPhone’s price by USD200 only weeks after its release. New York woman Dongmei Li is looking for USD1 million in damages, claiming Apple broke pricing laws, and saying in court that early purchasers are suffering as a result of the cut because they can’t gain the same profits when reselling the iPhones as later purchasers. Apple offered early adopters in-store credit as compensation.

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eBay takes USD900m hit for Skype buy

Don’t call it a bust just yet but it’s fair to say eBay executives aren’t thrilled with what they’re getting out of Skype, which the auction king bought for USD2.6 billion two years ago.

eBay has now said it will take a USD900 million so-called impairment write-down against the value of Skype. This means eBay has been forced to reassess the value of the internet telephony company relative to its overall business today. By recording a charge, the company is essentially saying it has taken a loss on its original investment.

In what looks like an attempt to shake things up at Skype and move the division in a new direction, eBay also said Skype co-founder and chief executive Niklas Zennstrom has stepped down.

His departure was expected. Zennstrom, who helped start Skype in 2003, has joined forces with Skype co-founder Janus Friis to start an internet television service called Joost. And it has long been anticipated he would take more time to work on that endeavour.

From the time the Skype acquisition was announced in September 2005, analysts and investors on Wall Street shook their heads wondering how the company could pay such a hefty premium on a company that essentially provided free or low-cost voice minutes in a market that is dominated by large incumbent telephone companies.

When the merger was announced, eBay, which owns and operates the most well known online auction service, said it saw great potential in using Skype’s peer-to-peer voice over IP technology to connect buyers and sellers in the eBay marketplace. There were grand plans to integrate eBay’s PayPal payment system with Skype’s VoIP network.

But nearly two years after the acquisition closed, there is little integration between eBay’s auction website and the Skype voice service. Even though Skype has grown into the largest voice over IP provider on the planet, the bottom line is clear — it still hasn’t made enough money to justify the hefty USD2.6 billion price tag.

Jordan Rohan, managing director and internet analyst at RBC Capital Markets, said: "The Skype service has been tremendously popular as a free service. But at some point, free doesn’t work anymore. It’s not a management problem. It’s a business model issue."

That said, Skype has been a success story of sorts in the VoIP arena. Its subscriber base has grown from 57 million registered users in 2005 to 220 million users at the end of June 2007. That’s an increase of more than 160 million registered users in less than two years. The division also recorded its second quarterly profit in a row on July 18 on revenue of USD90 million.

But despite this success, eBay’s CEO Meg Whitman said when the results were released, she was still not happy with Skype’s usage levels.

The big question now is, what’s next for Skype?

Clearly, the current business model is not enough to satisfy eBay in light of how much the company spent on Skype. And the reason is simple. Even though Skype has done a very good job of getting users to download its software client, most people who use the service do so to make free Skype-to-Skype phone calls.

The only way that Skype makes money from its subscribers is when people use its Skype-In or Skype-Out services. Skype-In allows users to pay to rent a phone number, which people on regular phones can call. Skype-Out allows users to call traditional phones or mobile phones for a fee.

Skype and eBay don’t break out how many subscribers use Skype-In and Skype-Out but Rohan said there is evidence in Skype’s numbers to suggest its Skype-Out usage is actually declining.

He said: "Skype-Out usage is way down. But regardless, Skype’s core business isn’t much different from a really cheap calling card business. The margins are really thin."

It’s clear that the dream of massive integration between eBay’s auction site and Skype won’t happen anytime soon. But the company still sees big potential in Skype’s voice services.

A spokesman for eBay said: "We feel like we can do a lot more with Skype as a standalone VoIP provider. Skype has been focused on user acquisition, and it’s done a great job. But we also feel like we can find new ways to monetise those users."

For example, he said the company is looking at ways to integrate e-commerce into the Skype client itself. Exactly how this would work is still unknown but for the 220 million users who have Skype on their desktops, eBay could integrate tags to purchase goods and services.

Advertising is another avenue that eBay is exploring, according to the spokesman. With 220 million registered users, Skype has a big enough audience to attract large advertisers. Some analysts agree this would be a logical opportunity for Skype to explore. But supporting a service through online advertising isn’t necessarily going to guarantee success.

Sally Cohen, an analyst with Forrester Research, said: "It could be as easy as showing Skype subscribers advertisements when they use the VoIP client. The challenge will be in making sure that eBay can match the advertisements with the subscriber base."

Adding advertisements to its service could also pit Skype against Google. The king of online advertising is also in the voice over IP market with its GoogleTalk application.

Some analysts speculate that Skype and eBay’s biggest opportunity is in taking their applications to mobile devices. Specifically, this would mean embedding the Skype client on mobile phones. Today, the client is very processor intensive, so the Skype mobile client is only able to run on more expensive smartphones, such as devices running Windows Mobile.

Scott Devitt, a managing director at investment company Stifel Nicolaus, said he also sees Skype and eBay leveraging the mobile platform in the payment arena as well, combining eBay’s PayPal service with the Skype client. "Wireless is the key to their future," he said. "In my eyes, that is the only future opportunity that justifies the price that eBay paid for Skype."

The eBay spokesman said the company is primarily focused on addressing desktop users but said it is committed to putting the Skype application in the hands of its users on whatever device they’re using.

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