Skype Debuts In-App Advertising

In a bid to drive up revenue, ahead of the announced IPO, Skype has just revealed a brand new 'feature' in the client software, in-app advertising. Users in several countries will start seeing ads in their Skype Home tab on occasions. Skype is taking it slow and rolling out the feature gradually and making it as unobtrusive as possible.

"Today we announce something new – the launch of advertising in Skype, which will appear in the Home tab in Skype starting this week," Skype's Doug Bewsher announced.

"The Skype experience is our first priority, which is why we we’ve taken a lot of time working through and testing what kind of advertising would work best in the Skype environment," he explained.

Skype has already been testing the ads for a couple of months. Now it's rolling out the change in the US, UK and Germany where it will be available initially.

Ads will probably introduced in other countries at some point, but for now, these are the markets that Skype is focusing on, so everyone else is safe, for a while. Even in the countries where it's being introduced, it will be a gradual roll out.

Skype is right in being cautious, introducing ads inside the app could lead to a lot of unhappy users. Skype says it plans to show only ads from one brand per day. And the ads themselves will not always be there, they will only load on occasion. For now, the ads will show up in the Home tab, but there are plans to experiment with other locations as well.

"We believe that advertising, when done in the right way, will help us continue to invest in developing great products," Skype said, alluding to the, rather obvious, reason for the ads - revenue. Skype is preparing for an IPO and beefed up revenues could help it bring in more cash from the public offer.