Skype to display ads

Skype recently announced that it will introduce advertising to boost revenue ahead of listing on the Nasdaq stock exchange. The popular free internet communications service founded in 2003, announced plans to raise up to $100 million by going public.

The ads won't interrupt your Skype experience

Skype channels voice, video and text conversations over the internet, thereby bypassing the standard telephone network said the ads will initially appear in the US, UK and Germany and will be seen by both personal and the increasing number of business users who are exploring the web based functionality of Skype.

"The Skype experience is our first priority, which is why we we've taken a lot of time working through and testing what kind of advertising would work best in the Skype environment," Skype said in a blog post.

"We believe that advertising, when done in the right way, will help us continue to invest in developing great products," the company said.

Advertisers that are expected to feature on Skype include Groupon, the discount coupon site, Visa and Universal Pictures.

On launch adverts will begin to appear in the home tab in Skype for Windows and Skype has said that they may experiment with ads in other areas as well."

"The ads won't interrupt your Skype experience," the company said. "You won't suddenly see annoying pop-up ads or flashy banner ads in middle of conversations."