Someone Should Tell eBay That Skype Just Lost 1.3 Billion Potential Users

from the bye-bye-China dept

Fri, Sep 9th 2005 9:36am — Mike Masnick

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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12 Comments

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Ivan Sick, 9 Sep 2005 @ 10:04am

No Subject Given
It is very dangerous to the citizenry. Of course, that's b/c the government wants it that way
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Jimi Spier, 9 Sep 2005 @ 10:12am

This crap is still happening in world..
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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Richard Wan, 9 Sep 2005 @ 10:41am

Taiwain!!
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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boots, 9 Sep 2005 @ 12:34pm

Re: This crap is still happening in world..
You my friend, are a moron
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Mick, 9 Sep 2005 @ 2:27pm

how old are you?
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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Anonymous Coward, 10 Sep 2005 @ 1:20am

Re: This crap is still happening in world..
Who? You mean the Red Indians??
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amazon10x, 20 Oct 2005 @ 3:54pm

Re: how old are you?
Mick, your link was broken. It should've read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protest
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Glenn Simon, 18 Jul 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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françois, 23 Dec 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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jose cocina, 27 Oct 2007 @ 7:09pm

it isn't just skype out...
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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Mich, 18 Mar 2008 @ 8:20am

Chongqing
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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Kenneth Lakey, 29 May 2009 @ 9:56pm

Dropping Out
I did send an email to Skype about a week and a half ago asking what causes my conversation to drop out all tha time and it does not happen all the time now but with a call to my daughter in Australia and we only spoke three words and that happened when I called again after a few minutes it did it again is it because it is too busy, but this morning only 8500000 was in Skype and yet the other day there was 16000000 on and it was good that was to the UK, it really is annoying and we only have Skype as we cannot get a phone in Thailand
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