On June 12 around noon, Skype announced something that all users dread. The well known video-chat program is going to be implementing advertisements during one-on-one Skype-to-Skype audio calls. Just when we thought it couldn't get any worse with advertisements completely flooding YouTube videos, Skype decides to drop this news on us.
Of course this is simply a brilliant marketing strategy for Skype, because not only will the company be making money off of the ads but it will also increase user subscriptions, as users who have a subscription to the site or have Skype credits will be able to chat ad-free. On a positive note, at least the ads will be silent and won't be that disturbing during audio calls.
Seeing that Skype is now owned by Microsoft, CEO Steve Ballmer has stated to the press that millions of users love Skype, "Time will tell how much the new ad policy at Skype will change that."
A major reason that Skype became so attractive for video chatting is the fact that it's an entirely cost-free service. That free users are going to have to suffer constant advertisement interruptions which may cause many of them to begin turning away from the service rather than purchasing a subscription. There isn't any news yet whether or not the ads will be implemented on the mobile applications as well, but I'm sure we will find out soon enough.