Skype displays Advert

Last week's blog post covering Skype, reported on the company's new advertising venture. Skype users were exposed to adverts from the likes of Groupon, Visa and Universal Pictures on the company's home page. This endeavour is an attempt by the company to create a new revenue stream.

Skype's chief marketing officer, Doug Bewsher, stated that the company ran some test ads on Rdio, "the all-you-can-stream, social, multi-platform music service" also owned by Skype.

Bewsher also reassured users on the company blog that these new ads will not be obtrusive and will be affecting their Skype experience. The ads will not be displayed based on users demography data, which is an addition to the option given to users to opt out from sharing such information.

This is the company's solution to maintain quality services and keeping some of its services such as Skype-to-Skype calls free. This could be a serious potential sources of income predicted by Fortune to accumulate more than £120 million ($200m) in annual revenues.
Pipon thinks that this is a great idea for both Skype and marketers utilising the site as an ad space. With more than 400 million people using Skype worldwide, marketers will get a large amount of ad exposure.