She will also need to use as many forms of transport as possible to complete her journey, from planes, trains and automobiles to hot air balloons, dog sleds and bumboats.

The Nomad will share her trip live on the internet as she travels, using a variety of Skype-enabled gadgets from 3 Skypephone to the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet. Her blog will include the latest queue-jumping tips, how to keep moving when waiting to board an aircraft or when stuck in a traffic jam.

The web community will also be able to share her journey on her blog www.skype.com/go/nomad or her Facebook or MySpace pages. They will also be able to get in touch with Rebecca on Skype (Skypename: 'theskypenomad') and give her inside information on the countries she is visiting.

"This is a great way to show people how easy it is to use Skype wherever they happen to be," said Malthe Sigurdsson, Skype's creative director. "Our Nomad has to keep moving for a long time. The only downtime she will have is when she's on a flight or some form of transport that keeps her moving."

"I'm really excited about the trip but I'm sure it will be hard to keep moving," said Rebecca Campbell, The Skype Nomad. "The great thing is I have a whole online community to rely on who can guide me to make the right decisions on what I eat and how I keep moving in any of the 15 countries I'll be in. I am sure I'll need a holiday afterwards! Travelling can be a bit lonely but with Skype, I know I can stay in touch with my friends and family for free or very little and that's very reassuring."

Skype is known for having registered over 309 million users without using any traditional advertising. Skype Nomad continues the idea of using more innovative communications to demonstrate its unique product. Nomad will be the world's longest product demonstration.

For this challenge, Skype has teamed up with international disability and development charity Motivation, which works in low-income countries to enhance the quality of life of people with mobility disabilities. Skype will be making a donation to the charity and in addition further donations can be made via www.justgiving.com/Skypenomad.

About Skype

Millions of people every day use Skype to communicate with others through free voice and video calls, as well as instant messages. Skype's 309 million registered users have made more than 100 billion minutes worth of free Skype-to-Skype calls. Many people also use SkypeOut™ or one of our global subscriptions to save money when calling landlines and mobiles at home and abroad. No longer bound to the computer, Skype conversations can also be had on a broad range of cordless handsets, mobile devices and other Skype Certified™ hardware. We've made it easy for Skype users to list and recommend their favourite local businesses to the rest of the community with SkypeFind. And even when you're fluent in using Skype, there is always more to discover: hundreds of third-party developers have created software plug-ins that make Skype even more useful. All of this makes Skype the leading global internet communications company.
Skype is an eBay company (NASDAQ: EBAY), and you can learn more and get Skype at www.skype.com.

Access to a broadband Internet connection is required for Skype and all Skype Certified devices and accessories. Skype is not a replacement for your traditional telephone service and cannot be used for emergency calling.

Skype, SkypeIn, SkypeOut, Skype Me, Skype Certified, Skypecasts, associated logos and the "S" symbol are trademarks of Skype Limited.

"These are still the early days for making Skype calls on mobile phones, but we've already made great strides in this space," said Gareth O'Loughlin, general manager, mobile and hardware devices. "Among other things, we have a great relationship with 3, the mobile operator, which has brought the mobile Skype experience to eight markets through the 3 Skypephone and a range of other packages and phones. Skype for your mobile will expand the available options even further.

"While Skype for your mobile is in beta,“ O’Loughlin added, "it is an important time for us to listen to our users‘ feedback, be it through surveys or user forums. We need to hear what delights them and where there is still work to be done. But this product underscores our commitment to innovation and to putting Skype conversations in the pockets of today’s mobile masses."

With its beta version, Skype for your mobile enters a public testing phase that will help Skype gauge the response of technology-savvy users whose feedback will help tweak the offering. This phase is expected to last several months, after which a public version of the application will be made available to millions of mobile phone owners around the world.

There are two ways to get the beta version of Skype for your mobile: as a direct over-the-air download to a compatible mobile phone, or it can be downloaded to a computer and then transferred to the phone. For instructions, please visit www.skype.com/go/mobiledownload. This Web page also includes a directory of currently supported mobile phones and the list of markets where the full feature set is available. Additional phones and markets will be added over time.

* You will not incur charges from Skype to call or chat with friends on Skype. Skype will charge its regular very low SkypeOut rates when you call friends who are not on Skype or receive calls in your mobile handset from other Skype users or over SkypeIn. 
When you call Skype-to-Skype or SkypeOut from your mobile, you are using mobile voice and data networks for which your mobile operator charges you for data usage and local mobile calling minutes. We highly recommend getting an unlimited data plan to use with Skype for your mobile. The mobile data network is used to sign onto Skype and to download your contacts, update presence and send/receive instant messages – so the longer you stay signed on, the more Skype contacts you have or the more you chat with another Skype user, the more you will use your mobile data plan. 

To keep the application lightweight, Skype for your mobile works over standard mobile voice networks connections for the first and/or last legs of Skype, SkypeOut and SkypeIn calls – and over the internet for the rest.

Users in ‘3’ territories can already get free end-to-end Skype calling and chat on the 3 Skypephone and end-to-end Skype calling at no extra cost on all compatible contract phones from the ‘3’ mobile operator, as part of their subscription. For more information, please visit www.3skypephone.com.

About Skype


Millions of people every day use Skype software to communicate with others through free voice and video calls, as well as instant messages. Skype's 309 million registered users have made more than 100 billion minutes worth of free Skype-to-Skype calls. Many people also use SkypeOut or one of our global subscriptions to save money when calling landlines and mobiles at home and abroad. No longer bound to the computer, Skype conversations can also be had on a broad range of cordless handsets, mobile devices and other Skype Certified hardware. We've made it easy for Skype users to list and recommend their favourite local businesses to the rest of the community with SkypeFind. And even when you're fluent in Skype, there is always more to discover: hundreds of third-party developers have created software plug-ins to make Skype even more useful. All of this makes Skype the leading global internet communications company.

Skype, SkypeIn, SkypeOut, Skype Me, Skype Certified, Skypecasts, associated logos and the “S” symbol are trademarks of Skype Limited.

Stefan Oberg, VP & GM telecoms at Skype said, “This move is a natural step for Skype. Skype was founded on the principle of making free voice and video calls available to people all around the world. And now we’re making it even easier for the Skype community to call their friends and family who are not yet on Skype. Our subscriptions give people an easy, hassle-free choice for how and when they want to catch up with their loved ones.”

Oberg continued, “For example if you live in London, for just €2.95 a month, you can call your grandmother in Poland, whenever you like, talk for up to six hours at a time, and not worry about how much it’s costing you. Your grandmother doesn’t need to understand the internet. You just use your Skype subscription to make the call and she just picks up the phone. And if you have friends and family spread over the world, you can reach them all for as little as €8.95 a month. When you combine the free features Skype is known for – from instant messaging to conference calling to video calls – with our subscriptions, it’s hard to find a better alternative.”

309 million people all over the world use Skype in all sorts of ways – whether it’s a weekly video call with a sister in Paris or sending an instant message to a college friend in Tokyo or calling a business contact overseas.

To purchase a subscription, simply go to skype.com/go/subscriptions for more details. If you purchase one of the new subscriptions for a 3-month or 12-month period before June 1st 2008, you will receive a further 33% discount.

About Skype’s calling subscriptions:

Skype users around the world can choose to subscribe to any one of the following calling subscriptions based on their individual calling needs:

You will only pay one flat monthly fee. There are no hidden costs or additional connection charges.

In parallel with our new subscriptions, Skype continues to offer its Pay As You Go option. Put as little as €10 on your Skype account and you can call whoever you want, whenever you want at very low rates.

*Unlimited calling: all calls are subject to Skype’s fair usage policy which is set at 10,000 minutes per month (which equates to more than 5 hours of calling per day). Calls to premium, non-geographic and other special numbers are excluded.

About Skype

Millions of people every day use Skype software to communicate with others through free voice and video calls, as well as instant messages. Skype's 309 million registered users have made more than 100 billion minutes worth of free Skype-to-Skype calls. Many people also use SkypeOut™ or one of our global subscriptions to save money when calling landlines and mobiles at home and abroad. No longer bound to the computer, Skype conversations can also be had on a broad range of cordless handsets, mobile devices and other Skype Certified™ hardware. We've made it easy for Skype users to list and recommend their favourite local businesses to the rest of the community with SkypeFind. And even when you're fluent in Skype, there is always more to discover: hundreds of third-party developers have created software plug-ins that make Skype even more useful. All of this makes Skype the leading global internet communications company.

Skype is an eBay company (NASDAQ: EBAY), and you can learn more and get Skype at www.skype.com.

Access to a broadband Internet connection is required for Skype and all Skype Certified devices and accessories. Skype is not a replacement for your traditional telephone service and cannot be used for emergency calling.

Skype, SkypeIn, SkypeOut, Skype Me, Skype Certified, Skypecasts, associated logos and the “S” symbol are trademarks of Skype Limited.

There is a similar pattern to video-conferencing use. Despite being a relatively new feature, more than 40% can see the potential of video-conferencing use in business. Skype’s internal data also suggest that 30% of all Skype calls now involve video.

The research suggests that small businesses are embracing conference calling and video conferencing as a method of communicating both internally and with their customers and new prospects. Key benefits of this approach have included minimising travel, facilitating communication, improving communication and reducing costs. With video conferencing, the addition of non-verbal communication such as body language is also an important factor.

In fact, of the SMEs questioned who were not current users of video conferencing many said they would be more likely to use it if it was better quality and not expensive. Making calls between Skype users is free for anyone with a computer and broadband internet connection. To start making video calls on Skype incurs minimal set-up costs (buying a webcam for example) and once the hardware is installed, the running costs are zero. Thanks to top quality imaging ability which is available for free when you download Skype today, video conferencing is set for huge growth in 2008.

“Saving money is just the start," said Stefan Oberg, VP and general manager, telecoms, at Skype. "Skype is a great tool for businesses – especially smaller businesses who thrive on productivity while at the same time keeping an eye on the bottom line. Being able to see your customer on video for free when you are talking to them is a massive benefit and made even better because Skype is so simple to use.”

“Most successful businesses are about relationships," said Richard Martin from Cotswold Woollen Weavers, a Skype for Business user. "And making business relationships work when you’re running a fast-growth company can be tough. As a majority of all communication is non-verbal being able to see the people you’re working with using Skype video calling is a real asset. It allows you to be flexible and doesn’t discriminate in terms of where your customers are based. More importantly, because you can see your customers this reduces the need for face to face meetings so you have more time to work on new areas of you business whilst looking after your customer base.”

-- ENDS --

For further information please contact Kate Ward, Becky Ribbans, Fiona Chow or Tristan Pineiro at 3 Monkeys Communications on 020 7440 2410 or e-mail kate@3-monkeys.co.uk/ Rebecca@3-monkeys.co.uk

About Skype

Skype sets the standard in providing new and easy ways to stay in touch over the internet. Millions of people every day make free Skype-to-Skype voice and video calls and send instant messages using our software. Some pay a little per minute for long-distance and international calls to phones and mobiles and for SMS, voicemail and call forwarding, or they buy subscriptions that give unlimited calls nationwide.

We certify and sell hundreds of hardware products from more than 50 partners and work with third-party developers to create software to extend Skype's functionality. Skype has been downloaded more than half a billion times and over 276 million people from almost every corner of the globe have registered.

Skype is an eBay company (NASDAQ: EBAY), and you can learn more and get Skype at www.skype.com.
Make your world a smaller place: talk, share and do more with Skype.

Skype, SkypeIn, SkypeOut, Skype Me, Skype Certified, Skypecasts, associated logos and the “S” symbol are trademarks of Skype Limited.

”I am very pleased to be joining Skype’s dynamic team at this important time in the company’s history,” said Silverman. “Skype is an incredibly exciting company. Our opportunities are tremendous as we continue to bring Skype to more people around the world, while finding new ways to add value and helping users continue to set their conversations free using Skype.”

Skype is leading the way in providing new and easy ways to stay in touch over the internet though voice and video calling. The company has grown phenomenally since it was founded in 2003, and was acquired by eBay Inc. in September 2005. Today, the company has more than 276 million registered users around the world. In Q4 2007, it posted total revenues of $115 million, an increase of 76 percent over the prior year, while delivering a fourth consecutive quarter of segment profitability. Skype recently announced that since the company was launched in 2003, users around the world have now talked to one another for more than 100 billion minutes using free Skype-to-Skype voice and video calls.

Silverman is currently serving as CEO of Shopping.com and oversees the strategic direction of one of the world’s most popular shopping comparison sites. Prior to joining Shopping.com, he held a variety of leadership roles at eBay, including General Manager for Marktplaats.nl. He was also responsible for helping to build eBay's extremely successful classifieds businesses in Europe. Before joining eBay in 2003, Silverman was co-founder and CEO of Evite, the leading social event planning web site.

Succeeding Silverman as Shopping.com CEO is another eBay veteran, Andre Haddad. Haddad joined the company in 2001, when eBay acquired iBazar, a leading European online marketplace he co-founded and successfully ran in Paris.

Haddad brings to his new role a strong entrepreneurial and general management background, a passion for the customer experience, and vast eBay business and product knowledge, both in North America and internationally. Most recently, Haddad served as Senior Vice President of Product at eBay. His expertise will be essential to continuing Shopping.com’s growth as a leading comparison shopping site. Haddad will also be leading eBay’s consumer electronics business.

"Shopping.com is a pioneer in online comparison shopping and is one of the fastest growing shopping destinations on the Internet," said Haddad. "I'm thrilled to be joining such an exciting company and look forward to building on the strong foundation that Josh and the Shopping.com team have established."

“It’s a testament to our deep talent pool that we can fill these positions internally,” said Donahoe. “We couldn’t be more pleased to have Josh and Andre taking on such critical leadership roles. Their deep expertise in building and leading fast growth companies combined with their history at eBay makes them the ideal leaders for the Skype and Shopping businesses.”

About eBay

Founded in 1995, eBay Inc. connects hundreds of millions of people around the world every day, empowering them to explore new opportunities and innovate together. eBay Inc. does this by providing the Internet platforms of choice for global commerce, payments and communications. Since its inception, eBay Inc. has expanded to include some of the strongest brands in the world, including eBay, PayPal, Skype, Shopping.com and others. eBay Inc. is headquartered in San Jose, California.

About Skype

Skype sets the standard in providing new and easy ways to stay in touch over the internet. Millions of people every day make free Skype-to-Skype voice and video calls and send instant messages using our software. Some pay a little per minute for long-distance and international calls to phones and mobiles and for SMS, voicemail and call forwarding, or they buy subscriptions that give unlimited calls nationwide.

We certify and sell hundreds of hardware products from more than 50 partners and work with third-party developers to create software to extend Skype’s functionality. Skype has been downloaded more than half a billion times and over 276 million people from almost every corner of the globe have registered. Skype is an eBay company (NASDAQ: EBAY), and you can learn more and get Skype at www.skype.com. Make your world a smaller place: talk, share and do more with Skype.

Access to a broadband Internet connection is required for Skype and all Skype Certified devices and accessories.

Skype, SkypeIn, SkypeOut, Skype Me, Skype Certified, Skypecasts, associated logos and the “S” symbol are trademarks of Skype Limited.

About Shopping.com

Shopping.com, an eBay company, pioneered online comparison shopping and today is one of the fastest growing shopping destinations on the Internet with items from thousands of trusted stores from across the Web. With a singular focus on shopping, Shopping.com offers shoppers easy-to-use search tools, engaging content, time-saving navigation, along with millions of product and merchant reviews from the Epinions community, all in one place. The Shopping.com Network powers the shopping experience for hundreds of websites. For more information, please visit www.shopping.com.

- - - - -

Media Contact:
eBay Media Hotline | +1.408.376.7458 | press@ebay.com

This mind-boggling number equates to one minute of free talk for every man, woman and child that has ever walked the Earth!

To put this into further perspective, Skype has only been in business for about 4.5 years (approximately 2,365,200 minutes). Yet people have used Skype to talk for more than 69,444,444 days (more than 190,258 years). Go back 150,000 years, if a woolly mammoth and a sabre-toothed tiger had started talking for free on Skype, they would still be chatting away today… and with 40,258 years to go!

It took McDonald's nearly 40 years to serve 100 billion hamburgers (from 1955 to 1994). And it’s taken Skype just over four years to hit the 100 billion free minutes mark which is pretty amazing!

For even more perspective on this milestone, check out the Skype Blog at
http://share.skype.com/sites/en/2008/02/one_hundred_billion_reasons_to.html

Skype has worked closely with a number of its hardware and software partners to bring
Skype functionality to an increasing number of mobile products that use a variety of
wireless network connections to access the internet. This includes offering mobile support for Skype’s free instant messaging and voice calling among the more than 246 million registered Skype users, as well as its premium features, such as SkypeOut™ (cheap calls from Skype to traditional landlines or mobile phones anywhere in the world) and SkypeIn™ (a personal and portable Skype number that people can call you on wherever you are in the world).

Some of the new wireless devices and accessories being demonstrated at the 2008
International CES that make Skype mobile include:

• 3 Skypephone – Introduced together with mobile operator 3, this new affordable
mass market 3G wireless handset lets users make Skype-to-Skype calls and send
Skype instant messages from their mobile phone to other Skype users no matter
where they are. The 3 Skypephone is available in the UK, Australia, Austria, Denmark,
Ireland, Italy and Sweden, and will soon be available in Hong Kong.

• Freetalk® Wireless Stereo Headset – This new Wireless Stereo Headset, enabled by
the new AvneraAudio™ technology, delivers CD-quality sound and the freedom of
hands-free Skype calls at any time. It offers superior range (up to 20 meters)
compared to technologies such as Bluetooth, freeing you from your desk to make
and receive the full range of Skype calls while moving throughout your home or
office.

• Intel-based Mobile Internet Devices – Mobile users will be able to make Skype voice
and video calls and send instant messages on the move, while harnessing the PClike
performance of Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) based on Intel low-power
processors and chipsets. This new category of small, truly mobile consumer devices
with WiMAX and WiFi capabilities will enable free Skype-to-Skype voice and video
calls and cheap SkypeOut calls to be made on open wireless networks.

• Nokia N810 Internet Tablet – The Nokia N810 Internet Tablet is a sleek, pocket-sized
WiFi device with a slide-out keyboard which frees Skype users from their desktop,
allowing Skype-to-Skype conversations and SkypeOut calls to take place in any WiFi
connection, including thousands of Boingo Wireless and Earthlink WiFi hotspot
locations.

• mylo™ Communicator – Skype comes pre-installed on Sony’s mylo personal
communicator, COM-2, so users can call or instant message any other Skype user all
over the world for free over an open WiFi connection. Users of the mylo can also
make cheap SkypeOut calls and receive SkypeIn calls.

• PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) handheld entertainment system (PSP-2000 series) –
With a simple system software update slated for late January, PSP users worldwide
will be able to make free voice calls to other Skype users, see which friends are
online and available to talk, and – with the purchase of Skype Credit – make cheap
SkypeOut calls and receive SkypeIn calls.

A sneak peek of the mobile Skype experience is available for media at Skype’s booth during ShowStoppers @ CES 2008 at the Wynn Las Vegas Hotel from 6-10 PM PST on Monday, January 7, 2008, as well as at Skype’s PR Suite in the Las Vegas Hilton (Suite #5121) throughout the week.

About Skype

Skype sets the standard in providing new and easy ways to stay in touch over the internet. Millions of people every day make free Skype-to-Skype voice and video calls and send instant messages using our software. Some pay a little per minute for long-distance and international calls to phones and mobiles and for SMS, voicemail and call forwarding, or they buy subscriptions that give unlimited calls nationwide.

We certify and sell hundreds of hardware products from more than 50 partners and work with third-party developers to create software to extend Skype's functionality. Skype has been downloaded more than half a billion times and over 246 million people from almost every corner of the globe have registered. Skype is an eBay company (NASDAQ: EBAY), and you can learn more and get Skype at www.skype.com. Make your world a smaller place: talk, share and do more with Skype.

Access to a broadband Internet connection is required for Skype and all Skype Certified devices and accessories.

Skype, SkypeIn, SkypeOut, Skype Me, Skype Certified, Skypecasts, associated logos and the “S” symbol are trademarks of Skype Limited.

“Many of the more than 246 million Skype users around the world are increasingly mobile and want to stay connected on the go,” said Gareth O’Loughlin, Skype's general manager of mobile and hardware devices. “Making the richer Skype experience available on mobile devices partly hinges on the need for more processing power, which in turn tends to shorten battery life. Intel’s focus on lowering power consumption helps us minimize that conundrum, underscoring our evolution beyond the desktop. And it‘s good news to anyone who has found themselves missing Skype on the road.”

As part of this effort, Skype will enable its software to run on the small, thin and light ultra-mobile MID devices with touch-screen LCDs, which are powered by Mobile Internet Linux. With the performance offered by Intel’s low-power processors and chipsets, some MID devices will even support mobile video calls over Skype.

“The emergence of Mobile Internet Devices represents an exciting new user experience,” said Pankaj Kedia, Director of Global Ecosystem Programs for the Ultra-Mobility Group at Intel Corporation. “Intel’s low-power technologies, combined with Skype’s optimized software, will enable MID users to easily stay in touch with their family and friends wherever they go.”

Skype is working with Intel to deliver its application software on the Mobile Internet Linux platform (www.moblin.org) through Original Device Manufacturers (ODMs) and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs). By bundling the Skype software on their devices, consumer electronics manufacturers can provide consumers with a rich internet communications experience – instant messaging, group chat, voice and video calls – right out of the box.

The first implementation of the Skype software for Mobile Internet Linux on Intel-based MID products is expected to be made available during the first half of 2008.

For more information about Intel Mobile Internet Devices and Ultra Mobile platforms, please visit www.intel.com/products/mid.

About Skype

Skype sets the standard in providing new and easy ways to stay in touch over the internet. Millions of people every day make free Skype-to-Skype voice and video calls and send instant messages using our software. Some pay a little per minute for long-distance and international calls to phones and mobiles and for SMS, voicemail and call forwarding, or they buy subscriptions that give unlimited calls nationwide.

We certify and sell hundreds of hardware products from more than 50 partners and work with third-party developers to create software to extend Skype's functionality. Skype has been downloaded more than half a billion times and over 246 million people from almost every corner of the globe have registered.

Skype is an eBay company (NASDAQ: EBAY), and you can learn more and get Skype at www.skype.com. Make your world a smaller place: talk, share and do more with Skype.

Access to a broadband Internet connection is required for Skype and all Skype Certified devices and accessories.

Intel is a trademark of Intel Corporation in the United States and other countries. Skype, SkypeIn, SkypeOut, Skype Me, Skype Certified, Skypecasts, associated logos and the “S” symbol are trademarks of Skype Limited.