Ads Coming to Skype Audio Calls on Windows

[Brink]

Video chat service Skype is based on conversation, so it's no surprise that the company announced today the launch of Conversation Ads, which will serve up advertisements during audio calls between non-paying customers.

The ads will appear within the Skype-to-Skype calling window during voice calls between Windows users who do not have Skype Credit or subscriptions, essentially sticking freeloaders with unavoidable ads. Skype said that call quality will remain the same for all users.

Read more at:
Ads Coming to Skype Audio Calls on Windows | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

 

[Petey7]

I hate to sound cheap, but those ads will likely just make me use Skype less. The only thing you pay for, is calling peoples phones through Skype, which I always thought was stupid. Why would I pay just to make the ads go away? Especially, when I can just stop using the service.

 

[windude99]

Video chat service Skype is based on conversation, so it's no surprise that the company announced today the launch of Conversation Ads, which will serve up advertisements during audio calls between non-paying customers.

The ads will appear within the Skype-to-Skype calling window during voice calls between Windows users who do not have Skype Credit or subscriptions, essentially sticking freeloaders with unavoidable ads. Skype said that call quality will remain the same for all users.

Read more at:
Ads Coming to Skype Audio Calls on Windows | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

Will it be in the middle of the video chat if I have signed up for a free account? Or, will it be at the bottom or somewhere else that's out of the way?

 

[Trucidation]

Great, now we have to yell at each other to hear ourselves over the ads.

/s

 

[TanyaC]

My son uses this.. He says "I'll just stop using skype and find another free program"...

I wonder how many other people will be ticked off enough to just dump skype and find something else. This kind of brow beating tactic doesn't seem to be the best way to improve sales, IMHO..

 

[Gordon Simmons]

Not that is skype is getting very laggy lately now they're adding ads! i've recently started using "viber" it's way better on my android but on windows still skype.

 

[pbcopter]

@Trucidation From what I read, the Ads are on the screen during a voice call not in the audio.

I have always marveled at how anyone can offer a service as useful and of the quality of Skype for Free. If Ads can keep it that way, then I have no complaint.

If eveyone looks for free with no ads, etc. then they will eventually go away in my opinion.

 

[logicearth]

Just so people understand. Its not an audio clip that interrupts your call, it is a silent picture the shows itself. So it won't be all that intrusive.

 

[Gornot]

Well, now it's only a matter of time before Viber gets extended and ported to bigger platforms, and goodbye Skype. At least I'm hoping it will.

I have always marveled at how anyone can offer a service as useful and of the quality of Skype for Free. If Ads can keep it that way, then I have no complaint.

Skype worked just fine for years without these ads, so why should they be here now?

 

[logicearth]

Skype worked just fine for years without these ads, so why should they be here now?

Why shouldn't they? People act so entitled. I swear.

 

[seekermeister]

It will never effect me, because I will never use Skype. I tried once, to the point that I paid for a subscription for one year, during which I was never able to make a call, apparently because of incompatibility between hardware, drivers or whatever. I tried to get help from Skype support, but since I didn't buy my phone from them, they wouldn't help me at all. To top that off, they charged my account for a second year of service, even after I had terminated my agreement with them. Yes, I got a refund, but that doesn't make me like it any better.

 

[Trucidation]

@Trucidation From what I read, the Ads are on the screen during a voice call not in the audio.

Yeah, hence the /sarcasm tag at the end of that post. It would be really stupid to do actual audio ads that got in the way of the call...

Colour me in the "don't care" camp, it seems to be a non-issue.

 

[Gornot]

Skype worked just fine for years without these ads, so why should they be here now?

Why shouldn't they? People act so entitled. I swear.

Well it's not like the company is falling apart and they need those ads to make cash, right?

 

[logicearth]

Does a business need to be failing apart in order to make money to sustain itself? Let me explain it to you, as long as a business makes enough money to stay out of the red it is viable. However, as the user base of that business grows so does its expense, it needs to make more money. A business needs to have a higher income then the investments that are going into it on a monthly bases, otherwise it is just dead.

Viber, for example will need to apply advertising within their own program to remain viable as well. Or require some form of monetizing their services to remain. Without money it will go out like the dodo bird.

Like I said, people act so entitled. You are given something for free, with no obligation to pay a cent to the business for using their service and software. And they have the gall to inject ads into their program you are using for free?!!!!111eleven!

 

[Gornot]

It's normal for a company to always have ways to make more money, but one would simply think that being bought by Microsoft was not a small sale in their goal to "sustain itself". That's all I meant.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
"Corporate Greed" rears its ugly head again -- SKYPE worked fine for years -- now I won't use it any more.
There are other alternatives these days.

I find I can't watch a lot of American Sport any more -- not because the games are bad but the whole pitch is covered with ads for things like totally undrinkable "Beer" (Budweiser and Beer in the same sentence -- even I have to question my own English here) - and the US commercials are far worse than the European ones -- the European ones bad though they are are just Static ones so with a bit of practice you just ignore them but the US ones have flashing type of "Subliminal" effects which are so intensly annoying you just have to stop watching.

People may or may not need money -- open source computer stuff seems to work fine -- Google also works relatively painlessly without smearing commercial s all over your face -- but a lot of other people seem to think that things like Facebook / Skype etc will work with commercials.

Too many ads or too many aggressive commercials just cause people to go elsewhere -- just look at the totally APPALLING coverage of Euro 2012 by the UK broadcaster ITV. Every conceviable instant and commercials appear.

The BBC service is fine (available on Brussels Cable TV and very popular too) but fortunately I know enough Flemish / Dutch to watch the other games which ITV would be showing on one of the Flemish Belgian (ads free) service that is normally used for Stock market reports during market hours. So if I'm typical then ITV have lost shedloads of viewers by having TOO MANY commercials -- nobody minds a few but an incessant number !!!!!.

So services like Skype and the like -- my view now is :

"No way Jose".

You can make money without having zillions of commercials -- as I said people don't mind a few but it's gone beyond the tolerable now and there are other business models available -- after all when was the last time you saw a commercial for a Ferrari on TV. !!.

With really annoying commercials I make a deliberate policy of NOT buying the product even if it is "the best" or "cheapest" and many of my colleagues do the same now too !!.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[logicearth]

Hi there
"Corporate Greed" rears its ugly head again -- SKYPE worked fine for years -- now I won't use it any more.

Because it has ads? Are you insane? Everything that is free will have ads as long as it requires infrastructure to maintain. Get over yourself. If you are going to be hypocritical about greed you better get off Earth, you are just as greedy as those "corporate" bureaucratic. You want everything for nothing.

"I want to use this service for FREE! I don't want a pay any of my hard earned money...oh and I don't want to look at ads that help pay for the cost that my freeloading brings!" Do you have any idea how much it costs to run an entire datacenter filled with servers? Do you have any idea how much bandwidths cost? Its not cheap let me tell you.

* Advertisement for a Ferrari is a bad example, just like Rolls-Royce, they are a premium car manufactures selling to those who have money, not Joe Average. Who also already have an extensive reputation.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
it's NOT the fact that they have commercials -- it's the FREQUENCY and METHOD they do it with.

Google has loads of commercials for example but they aren't "Pushed in your face" and interrupt you in doing your work.

There MUST be some method of doing this reasonably -- as I said before if the frequency becomes TOO MUCH or the methodology TOO AGGRESSIVE (such as the FLASHING signs at a Sports fixture) people WILL go elsewhere.

I'm surprised that even the most junior marketing manager doesn't realise this.

Incidentally there are loads of much cheaper products than Ferraris that receive very little advertising but atre successful because the quality etc of the product is transmitted by word of mouth -- still important these days to keep a good reputation for your product(s).

Reality is fine as is reasonabless -- but overwhelming "corporate Greed" will just turn people off.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Golden]

Here's a suprise out of the blue:

https://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-sou...-ships-a-new-version-of-skype-for-linux/11229

 

[Gornot]

You want everything for nothing.

Now you're just being insulting.

Besides, Skype FREE doesn't offer everything, unlike Skype Premium, so this statement is just purely wrong and offensive to your own intelligence, because I know you're a smart guy and better than this low-blow defense.