5 Ways To Use Skype Prime to Make Money
March 19th, 2007 (6:00am) Dameon Welch-Abernathy 17 Comments
Skype Prime has created somewhat of a stir in the blogosphere. It basically gives you the ability to charge someone for calls (either per-call or per-minute). Phil Wolff at Skype Journal points out the limitations, which are as follows:
- $0.50/min minimum all charge
- Skype takes 30% of whatever you charge
- You have to wait at least 120 days to get paid.
These usurious rates really limit the potential uses of this, particularly when you consider that most calls are peer-to-peer and they aren’t really doing anything except payment processing. If they drop their cut to, say, 3% (that’s all PayPal charges for credit card processing), drop the minimum call charge limits, and reduce the amount of time it takes to actually get paid, I could see this really taking off in some of the less affluent countries.
Assuming Skype reduces their cut of the action, pays people in a timely manner, and improves the Skype Prime service, there are a few places where Skype Prime could be used to make some money:
1. Skype becomes a way to “pay” for shareware software. Call the author, he “charges” you for the call, he sends you the activation code in Skype and/or file transfer the unlocked version. Now it’d be nice if Skype opened up their API a little more to make it practical to automate this kind of thing. It could become it’s own eCommerce platform for automated software (or license key) delivery. Would fall right into the kinds of things eBay does.
2. Think eBay seller and eBay buyer. Buyer wants a visual confirmation of the item they order, so they call he eBay seller. eBay seller shows them the item “live,” the seller pays “okay, you can pay now thru Skype.” Buyer clicks, and everyone’s paid. No muss, no fuss. This one could be done without Skype Prime, e.g. pay through PayPal, check your email, and get confirmation over the phone of receiving the payment.
3. The usual technical support scenarios by independent consultants. Charge per-incident or per-minute for support. Add something like Webdialogs Untye to the mix for the “let me look over your shoulder” experience.
4. The obvious horoscope/phone sex angles, the top use of 900 numbers. I don’t see the terms of service being a deterrent for anyone setting these kinds of services up. Even if these kinds of services were against the TOS, it would be difficult to enforce them anyway.
5. As part of a video dating service. If you want to hook up with a potential mate, it’s going to cost you. The trick here is that a “third party” would have to control the charging, not to mention some changes would have to be made to ensure anonymity of the participants.
Do you have any clever ways you can think of using Skype Prime to make some money? Post your ideas in the comments.
17 Comments Post your own comment
Alex says: March 19th, 2007 10:27am
Have your mother pay every time she want’s to call you. Since my mother got my skype name she won’t stop calling me since it’s free. Well if she’s going to yac the whole day at least let me get something out of it! - Cruel? I know.. :-(
Imran Ali says: March 19th, 2007 12:40pm
I echo your usurious observations! I’ve blogged some other (similar and non-similar) thoughts at http://www.oreillynet.com/etel/blog/2007/03/primo.html
David Mullings says: March 19th, 2007 1:16pm
Well one interesting way I would consider using this is setting up a call center in Jamaica (or other english-speaking Caribbean country) for medical transcription services. I would allow doctors to call the center directly to dictate diagnoses etc. and the operator (or computer) will record that call, charge the doctor right away, complete the transcription and send the written file back as soon as possible, maybe even the same day but definitely by next morning.
The difference between this and current operations is how soon the doctors pay. The quicker I can get my money, the better for me (so Skype better pay fast too).
Another opportunity, if the price was cheap enough, would be calling in from your phone to get live updates on a sports match that wasn’t covered in your country. If you really want to listen live but are on the road and your car radio or satellite radio isn’t getting it, call in and listen live - audio pay per view. For example: Listen to a live cricket match from the Cricket World Cup in Jamaica, Barbados or Trinidad and Tobago, etc.
Those are the two that came right off the top of my head, let me think about some more and if I do, I will post them as well.
GigaOM » What’s on GigaNET says: March 19th, 2007 2:17pm
[...] by Om Malik Monday, March 19, 2007 at 1:50 PM PT | No comments WebWorkerDaily: 5 ways to use Skype Prime to make money?WebWorkerDaily: Redundant Internet for Web [...]
Lionel Dersot says: March 19th, 2007 4:29pm
Obviously, over-the-phone interpretation, but the 30% charge is prohibitive.
5 Ways To Use Skype Prime to Make Money says: March 19th, 2007 4:35pm
[...] Yes, as Andy says, I’m making my way into the big time. I’ve done a few pieces for Web Worker Daily already and I’d like to do more. My latest is an article on 5 Ways to Use Skype Prime to Make Money. [...]
VOIPBLOG.IT » 5 modi per fare soldi con Skype Prime says: March 19th, 2007 5:45pm
[...] WebWorkerDaily ha pensato a 5 modi per sfruttare Skype Prime, ma ce ne saranno sicuramente molti altri (se non sbaglio ho letto di un servizio di "confessioni" via Skype a pagamento: si chiama un utente Skype a cui confessare i nostri peccati/segreti e questi pubblicherà tutto su un blog, facendoci espiare le nostre colpe attraverso l’autosputtanamento). 1. Skype becomes a way to “pay” for shareware software. Call the author, he “charges” you for the call, he sends you the activation code in Skype and/or file transfer the unlocked version. Now it’d be nice if Skype opened up their API a little more to make it practical to automate this kind of thing. It could become it’s own eCommerce platform for automated software (or license key) delivery. Would fall right into the kinds of things eBay does. [...]
Do you know the way to San Jose? at Roam4free says: March 20th, 2007 12:13am
[...] praises GrandCentral Om laments the demise of tier 1, its not voip Om, just tier 2 or 3 carriers Dameon has the skinny on Skype prime. Andy’s got free internet Luca has arrived, see you tomorrow [...]
Maca Jazz - Digest Blog » Blog Archive » 5 modi per fare soldi con Skype Prime says: March 21st, 2007 4:21pm
[...] WebWorkerDaily ha pensato a 5 modi per sfruttare Skype Prime, ma ce ne saranno sicuramente molti altri (se ricordo bene, ho letto di un servizio di "confessioni" via Skype a pagamento: si chiama un utente Skype a cui confessare i nostri peccati/segreti e questi pubblicherà tutto su un blog, facendoci espiare le nostre colpe attraverso l’autosputtanamento). Ne avete in mente qualcuno? 1. Skype becomes a way to “pay” for shareware software. Call the author, he “charges” you for the call, he sends you the activation code in Skype and/or file transfer the unlocked version. Now it’d be nice if Skype opened up their API a little more to make it practical to automate this kind of thing. It could become it’s own eCommerce platform for automated software (or license key) delivery. Would fall right into the kinds of things eBay does. [...]
Raghnaid Mandy says: May 1st, 2007 10:16am
Kogda nastanut holoda i belaja doroga ljazhe. Raghnaid Mandy.
Aristides Albertina says: May 9th, 2007 4:18pm
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Meg says: October 4th, 2008 12:44pm
PremiumTalk does this same concept without the expensive usury fees. However, they currently only allow calls within the US and Canada