Dentsu will start offering ads on the online telephone application Skype, in Japan.
It will be an exclusive deal from which Dentsu hopes to generate some $12 million (1 billion yen). The ads will be shown when starting a conversation including video chat, and it may take up to 1/3 of the screen*. (Pretty in-your-face if you ask me.) Similar deals exist in US and Germany already.
These ads, which are a recent change in Skype's direction (it used to ad free), were not totally unexpected. The competition for online calling is getting fiercer everyday, and rates are dropping diminishing revenues. What better idea than to put ads on it (many eyeballs because of increased interest) and have the service for free (or at least cheaper)?
What will be the next step? The satirical website Onion News Network made this clip a while ago. I wouldn't be surprised if it would become reality. Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.
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