BY Kit Eaton
Skype just revealed something new--it's adopting in-app adverts. Supposedly, it won't interfere with your "Skype experience."
The new ads will appear in some users's Skype home pages starting this week, the company announced in a blog post. Advertising, when done in the right way, will help us continue to invest in developing great products," according to the statement.
While the app will use some personal data with ad partners, it's possible to opt out of sharing "non-personally identifiable demographic data with advertisers," and the ads will only appear "occasionally." This occasional ad presentation may be as little as one ad per brand partner per day. Groupon, Universal Pictures, and Visa are already on board, and the ads will appear in the U.S., U.K., and Germany at first.
Skype also mentions three times that the adverts won't interfere with the "Skype experience," which is paramount for the company--as perhaps you'd rightly expect for a firm whose entire raison d'etre is to serve up low-cost voice-over-IP telephony. There will be no "annoying pop-up ads or flashy banner ads" when you're busy chatting with your Mom, and the ads will only be on the Home page at first--though it is likely they'll appear elsewhere in Skype's UI in the future.
Skype has made other moves to monetize recently, including a move to make group video conferencing part of its Skype Premium paid service, rather than a free facility like its basic single-user Skype-to-Skype voice and video calling. Lets hope this new monetization effort annoys users less than the pretty controversial "quick bar" ad system that Twitter is taking a lot of heat for right now.
Skype just revealed something new--it's adopting in-app adverts. Supposedly, it won't interfere with your "Skype experience."
The new ads will appear in some users's Skype home pages starting this week, the company announced in a blog post. Advertising, when done in the right way, will help us continue to invest in developing great products," according to the statement.
While the app will use some personal data with ad partners, it's possible to opt out of sharing "non-personally identifiable demographic data with advertisers," and the ads will only appear "occasionally." This occasional ad presentation may be as little as one ad per brand partner per day. Groupon, Universal Pictures, and Visa are already on board, and the ads will appear in the U.S., U.K., and Germany at first.
Skype also mentions three times that the adverts won't interfere with the "Skype experience," which is paramount for the company--as perhaps you'd rightly expect for a firm whose entire raison d'etre is to serve up low-cost voice-over-IP telephony. There will be no "annoying pop-up ads or flashy banner ads" when you're busy chatting with your Mom, and the ads will only be on the Home page at first--though it is likely they'll appear elsewhere in Skype's UI in the future.
Skype has made other moves to monetize recently, including a move to make group video conferencing part of its Skype Premium paid service, rather than a free facility like its basic single-user Skype-to-Skype voice and video calling. Lets hope this new monetization effort annoys users less than the pretty controversial "quick bar" ad system that Twitter is taking a lot of heat for right now.
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