Skype Rolls Out Skype Prime: Charge For Calls

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1. ATLBeer
   

   March 8th, 2007 at 12:01 am

   Phone sex…

   If they actually crunch the numbers in a year I bet >50% of their revenue from this model will be from phone sex.

2. Bishop
   

   March 8th, 2007 at 12:18 am

   Ha, thats the first thing the I thought of ATLBeer.

3. Frank Daley
   

   March 8th, 2007 at 1:09 am

   “To use the new service, both sides of the call must be using the newest version of Skype (3.1.0.134) for Windows. Other platforms are coming eventually, Skype says.”

   Skype’s Linux support is a joke. Every so often I read about a great new release of Skype. However when I go to download the Linux version, it is several releases behind. Given that there are now numerous tool kits to produce cross-platform applications for Windows, Mac, and Linux - it’s about time Skype moved its development platform into the 21st Century.

4. Peter Cooper
   

   March 8th, 2007 at 2:43 am

   ATLBeer: The sad thing about that is that Skype, like most communications programs, doesn’t make it particularly easy to maintain multiple profiles or accept communications on two different profiles at once (I don’t think you can run two copies of Skype at once?). I don’t think grandma or mom and pop will be too impressed with their daughter’s profile

5. Jonathan Kane
   

   March 8th, 2007 at 3:52 am

   30% fees and waiting time of 4 months to see the money!!!
   Who would want that when their partner http://www.bitwine.com takes 0% fees and pays immediately for the same service?!

6. Michael Hoffman
   

   March 8th, 2007 at 4:01 am

   I think this is a great idea and I can imagine tech support and lots of other uses, even for our company. But 30% just strikes me as greedy. It strikes me as a more like Microsoft than 37Signals, more like an Ebay under Wall Street pressure than a hip/viral Skype. It makes sense for the sex lines, but doesn’t make sense for other business and so my guess is that well more than 50% of revenue from this will be adult related.

7. Steve Kohler
   

   March 8th, 2007 at 6:47 am

   Very good idea. This revenue model may gain traction as a way
   for specific web services to provide revenue to mashup services which add adding value by aggregating services in ways that are valuable to users.

   Let’s see who is next. Google apps should do this. It may be an important
   distribution channel in the next couple of years.

   Steve Kohler

8. Josh
   

   March 8th, 2007 at 7:12 am

   Do they have a search function then? Not at home to download install yet, but this could work. Sounds a little like Bitwine, which did the same thing, and even integrated with Skype, but just had no user base.

9. Randy Follow up
   

   March 8th, 2007 at 7:36 am

   Skype STOLE my money. I had $9.85 credit in my Skype account, and they TOOK IT because i didn’t use it for a couple months. So now I guess I have to take something of theirs. Like a flower pot or something. Where is their headquarters?

10. Ronald Lewis
    

    March 8th, 2007 at 7:36 am

    I really wanted to believe that 30% was a typo.

11. Roy
    

    March 8th, 2007 at 8:13 am

    Check USPTO records here and see if you are surprised?

    http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacg.....amp;d=PG01

12. Josh
    

    March 8th, 2007 at 8:17 am

    @Jonathan Kane

    Because Bitvine has no user base.

13. Josh
    

    March 8th, 2007 at 8:18 am

    Also, yea, 30% seems way excessive. BUT, it could be worse.

    If you charge $1 a minute, you still walk away with $42. Not bad for an hours worth of work.

14. Aziz
    

    March 8th, 2007 at 8:31 am

    Obviously, techcrunch readers didn’t hear about Wengo I work for this French-based start-up and we already (since few months) developed the “same” system & the marketplace that come with ! (sellers are rated, classified in a directory….) new tools and a new version of the website will be live in two weeks so stay tuned

    for more information plz check: http://www.wengo.com

    Aziz
    Wengo guy

15. Jason
    

    March 8th, 2007 at 8:32 am

    Bitwine doesn’t charge because it’s in beta…I’m sure that once they come out of that, they’ll take a piece of your earnings as well.

16. James Wong
    

    March 8th, 2007 at 8:47 am

    Note the resemblance to keen.com/ingenio - and the likely evolution to adult lines/ psychics/ astrology…

17. randulo
    

    March 8th, 2007 at 9:00 am

    Funny, when Wengo/WDEAL showed their concept at LeWeb 2.0 I asked the CEO what would happen when Skype did the same. “But they won’t!” was the answer.

18. NM
    

    March 8th, 2007 at 9:45 am

    BitWine has the same user-base as Skype, think about it!

    BitWine simply have a more efficient payment system. Skype system must charge high commission and hold the money for ages to avoid losses on charge-backs - fraud.

    BitWine pays after 10 minutes.

    When they do charge commission, it will be lower than Skype and will support Rev Share for the benefit of the users and Advisors marketing affiliates.

19. Roy
    

    March 8th, 2007 at 10:06 am

    When we filed our patent for the C2C revenue model in 2003, we included “Pay-U” as an option in addition to the “Free” and “U-Pay” options. Skype missed that piece of goodie so far, but I doubt that they will play catch up after knowing there is a string attached to the whole concept.

    What is good in a “Pay-U” call? Well, it serves the demand side just as “U-Pay” scheme serves the supply side. A market place should serve both sides to achieve balance. If you price yourself at $20 per minute, and nobody calls you, why don’t you go out and look for “Pay-U” users on the same subject? You might find a $6 customer, so you don’t get paid $20, but $6 is better than $0 while your time is slipping away between your fingers.

    We expected all IM players to make their moves towards monetization with C2C fee flows, but we will claim our IP rights based on the patent that we applied for as earlier as in 2003 and granted since 2004, and for those who are curious about what we are hoping to achieve, here is our mission satement:

    IM, Instant Money ™!

20. Meg
    

    March 8th, 2007 at 10:09 am

    I’ll have phone sex with you for 30 minutes at 15% off the list price. Just paypal me first and then skype me for free! You save 15%, I make 15% more. Win-Win.

21. Roy
    

    March 8th, 2007 at 10:35 am

    you will be a loser who has no track record for credit ranking, people don’t buy cheap, they buy quality and security. If your theory works for all, then there will only be prostitutes and no pimp in the society, but in fact, the two co-exist since day one! .. ;o)

22. skimp
    

    March 8th, 2007 at 3:52 pm

    skype pimp…i’m gunna use it to bill my mum, everytime she needs help fixing the computer…Instant Money that one Mr Patent

23. Roy
    

    March 8th, 2007 at 6:08 pm

    up to you, skimp, if you havn’t noticed the potential of click-to-call in advertising!

    Go to Kijiji or Adwords and expose yourself to the public, I’m sure you can make a comfortable living just by helping people out. BTW, Skype is not the first one offering click-to-call and presence icon, Y! is the one to my believe.

    Yours,

    Mr. Patent
    IM, Instant Money!

24. abuse
    

    March 8th, 2007 at 10:48 pm

    skype should take a fixed price, not a percentage.
    If one plans to use this skype feature to sell “knowledge” like 100USD/hour consultant, 30% is unfair.

    hope skype comes up with another model. (otherwise I’m not gonna use it)

25. Charlie
    

    March 9th, 2007 at 4:18 am

    It is great to see Skype in the market….. all of a sudden it seems as if the debate has shifted from market viability to whether 30% is too much to pay and, of course, the merits of phone sex .

    As an investor in Bitwine (www.bitwine.com), we have seen tremendous growth in installs and number of advisors. I am sure that some folk will prefer Skype, others Ether, etc. The point is that the market is so huge and the potential for innovation is so great, that there is ample room for quality services, such as these to provide value for users…and shareholders.

26. Roy
    

    March 9th, 2007 at 3:26 pm

    Well said about the shifted focus, 30% or pricing schemes are just superficial, and phone sex would be just about the same size of distant learning not counting language exchange.

    I’d love to point out to everyone that once IM got monetized, and calls can be place in distributed online ads with just one click (click-2-call), either ended pc-2-pc or pc-2-pstn, you will see an emgerging sector which grows exponentially on Instant Soft-Commerce.

    I am sure one of our innovations, the “Pay-U tm” scheme will also add flavor to the online ads and CRM industry with improved intimacy and respect towards individual “YOUs” who together created and added value to the internet and mashed up the Web 2.0!

27. Patrick Ryall
    

    March 11th, 2007 at 8:50 pm

    Greetings all -

    The idea is sound and a natural progression forward in the digital age; with products such as plasma televisions being a simple stop gap until new interactive media is released I believe we will see such services as Skype for commerce boom.

    True at 30% it is ridiculous and I am sure that both competition and increase of user base would substantially change the price point of such technology.

    We are moving forever towards more digital communication, my fiancée and I are about to spend 6 months backpacking Australia and blogging as we go. Equipped with Nokia N series a Mac and Pc lappy, canon movie camera, and a Nikon DSLR D2Xs plus a bit more stuff just for good measure.

    Even though we are still going to run into some Internet access issues over all it will still be a reasonably easy live blogging venture. With people such as us living from mobile incomes; technology such as Skype and up and coming developments only helps this new breed of virtual income earners.

    Yes we can gripe about the prices and or payment guidelines, but we have to remember, did you release a better cheaper technology? Or are we just picking holes in what we know is going to be huge and just another step forward.

    I for one welcome this with open arms, will probably even partake in the system, have to wait I will for Mac support, but this as well will become a distant memory as other software is developed. Also at the end of the day we know the Mac is a better platform with many active developers world wide, tomorrow there will probably be students huddling together seeing if how they are going to make the next Mac / Linux client.

    Until we charge each other for our knowledge I bid you a b l o g g i n g good day

28. shopautodotca seocontest
    

    April 2nd, 2007 at 9:42 pm

    30% is pretty pricey for a fee, I’m not to pleased with that one. Plus both have to be skype users, not to plausible now, but maybe in the future http://www.shopautodotca-seocontest.com