Fring is trialing something it should have implemented long ago if it ever planned on making money: ads.
Fring is essentially a mobile VoIP / chat service provider that works on the iPhone and any device running Windows Mobile or Symbian, with technology that enables users to make free calls using the Fring service itself, Skype, Live Messenger, Google Talk, and other communication services.
Up until now, the chat functionality was completely ad-free, but now Fring will gradually start rolling out banner display ads, beginning with a small number of randomly selected users.
From the Fring blog:
We wanted to give you the heads-up, as you may soon see small clickable advertising banners in the fring chat window, beneath the chat itself. Clicking the ad will open your browser and take you to the advertiser’s site; you may even find extra special offers, cool promos & other nice surprises behind the click from time to time :-) And, more clicks mean happy advertisers; and happy advertisers mean more resources for us to develop cool new stuff for you to play with in fring!
The beta version of Fring was made publicly available in January 2007, and is now being used by millions of users across the globe. With (at least) $10 million in venture funding, the company was bound to come up with a monetization effort for all those users soon. Unlike competitors such as Jajah and Truphone, Fring is committed to keeping the costs of calling as low as possible and will try to make up for that revenue by slapping ads on chat screens.
(Thanks to Harel Schattenstein for the tip)
Maybe it’s just me, but I will never use an IM application that has and/or injects ads.
I would pay a very small amount for a messenger if it was good, but I’m not going to put up with ads in the middle of a conversation with someone.
I’ve tried Fring’s Skype on iPhone. The voice quality was not great and when somebody called me the Skype caall was lost. I think the app needs some work, but I’d be happy to pay for it if it worked well.
What a lame tip! I had blogged that story 2 months ago:
Markus Göbel’s Tech News Comments:
Finally Fring reveals how it wants to make money
http://www.goeb...t-wants-to.html
Harel just copied today’s press release we all got.
Congrats.. You can blog on it again ;)
Big surprise.
The only way the entire online/mobile world can monetize is through advertising. In 20 years will there even be any products left?
Or the whole world is just going to run on ad revenue. It’s really gonna suck when nobody’s growing food or making clothes… they’re just making ads for them. Yep, we’ll be damn hungry trying to eat that Metacafe banner ad for lunch.
It’s absolutely ridiculous that Apple put no chat client into the native stack of the iPhone – while Android put in MSN, Yahoo, AIM and Gtalk.
Good for Fring to try to fill this niche – shame on Apple for going a little too Scandinavian here (read: minimalistic).
bad news guys :(
Why not try Voice Calls like ((truphone)), http://www.truphone.com , Not more ADS, I want Gold Standard, crystal clear voice calls and SMS which arrive on the other end. And therefore I cannot use fring and have to opt for ((truphone)), clearly the industry is in a fall out. No matter how many users, users x Zero = Zero.
It is certainly a nice try, and hopefully Fring can monetize from this ad business model. But it could be tough, it all comes down how many free users are there and how many clicks they are generating, with the cost per click being commoditized, you really need a hell lot of users to break even. But nice try, and it’s a good start so far.
plz visit its free web and wap site! Foe everyone all over the world …http://marianaworld.com/?rid=431 or http://marianaworld.com/x
not a great news to read!
very bad
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