Niklas Zennstrom, the co-founder of the internet phone service Skype, has suggested that the start-up was overvalued when it was bought by eBay, but said that the company would turn out to be a good business "over the longer term."

In his first interview since stepping down as the chief executive of Skype last week, Mr Zennstrom said that the revenue projections made by his team prior to being bought by eBay, the auction house, were "a bit front-loaded," and that he felt the company had "tried to monetise too rapidly."

Last week eBay, which bought Skype for $2.6 billion in 2005, said it would take a $1.43 billion charge in relation to the acquisition - a write-down that was widely seen as a concession that it had overpaid.

In remarks made at a technology conference in Hungary, Mr Zennstrom defended Skype's value, saying that it in the second quarter its earnings had grown by 100 per cent from a year earlier, to $90 million, and that the company had recorded a profit in the first quarter.

Analysts claim that despite having an estimated 220 million users worldwide, Skype's service - which allows people to make phone calls via the internet using their computer - has failed to generate significant revenues.

According to an estimate, by Gartner, the company earns an average of £1.10 from each user per year.

Mr Zennstrom told delegates at the ETRE conference in Budapest that investors needed to "look at the long term value of a company" and that Skype's position in the market had strengthened.

"It's not like it's been overtaken by Microsoft or Google or Yahoo," he was quoted as saying. "Over the longer term, I think it's going to turn out to be a good business."

Steve Blood, an intenet telephony analyst at Gartner, said that eBay has been foolish paying so much for Skype, but that the company still had a chance to extract value from the company if it incorporated Skype's services into its existing business model.

"Ebay has been talking about diversifying into internet communication, but they'd better off incorporating Skype's services into their existing business, like for instance allowing people buying and selling goods could make video calls," Mr Blood said. "That would help build trust and address issues such as fraud."

Mr Zennstrom said it had been his choice to leave Skype, even though he and his co-founder, Janus Friis, could have made more money if the company had hit certain financial targets over the next two years.

"I made a decision to phase myself out. The question is, when do you do that? In this case, it was when the company is in a good position in the market and you feel confidence in your team," he said.

In the meantime, Mr Zennstrom will focus on his next project, Joost, which aims to deliver broadcast-quality television via the internet. Joost's service opened to the public this week after an invitation-only trial.

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