Skype Prepares New Business Model: Advertising

After launching the group video calling feature, which allows users to have telephone conversations over the internet with 5 people at once, which is currently in beta, Skype or Whatsapp reportedly is preparing an additional business model in the form of advertising.

Such that reported by Telegraph, their CEO, Josh Silverman said that they are considering allowing third-party developers to 'manage' ads for their service as a new source of revenue to keep their basic service free.

Until now, Skype's biggest income is from their monthly paid audio service. The service has experienced a price reduction, announced by Skype last week, with this service Skype allows users who want to make phone calls, be it landline or mobile, consisting of two 'pay as you go' programs as well as a monthly subscription.

Skype registered users, as reported by ReadWriteWeb Currently there are around 560 million and more than 20 million users are connected to this service every time. Although there is no official advertising model as to what kind of advertising is used or appears on their service, Skype also says that advertising can be a difficult condition, because Skype is used very personally. However, it's still like that written ReadWriteWeb, Skype will make this ad placement later very classy, ​​which means it won't interfere with their main service.

Until now we can only guess what kind of advertisements will appear on Skype, whether in the form of running text, or pop ups in certain sections that display advertisements but do not interfere with the telephone call process or other placements that are elegant and especially do not interfere with privacy and processes. phone call.

Group calling services will also be charged. Until now, because it is still in beta, this service can still be enjoyed for free.

Even though if you look at Alexa's data (May 13, 2010), Skype users are still few, around 0.7%, but some of my acquaintances, especially those who have clients abroad, almost always use this service to communicate with them, not only because the basic service of this application is free, but indeed abroad, such as the US, and Europe, as well as Asian countries such as India and Japan, this service is quite popular, and their clients are mostly from foreign countries. this. Or if you are not familiar with Skype, you can watch the show Oprah Winfrey, who often uses Skype as a remote interview service for their speakers.

Some time ago, around the beginning of March, Skype also allowed users who use Nokia phones to enjoy their services by providing Skype for Symbian features, so users can make phone calls via the internet directly from their cell phones.

Although advertising is a sensitive item for personal services, such as Skype, because it will enter the private space, but for users, it seems that the revenue model from advertising will not make them 'angry', as long as Skype's main service remains free and ad placement is done properly, elegantly. and not too distracting.

For services such as Skype, which makes available basic features available for free, finding the right revenue model is indeed a strategy that must be implemented properly, lest, if this advertising business model has been implemented, users feel annoyed and leave the product. they.

We are waiting for what kind of advertising model Skype will implement, hopefully when this form of advertising is launched it can inspire local startups to create monetization programs for their products.