Meebo to Represent Skype Advertising Sales Exclusively in the U.S.; Visa and Universal Pictures are Premier Advertising Partners
NEW YORK – Meebo announced a new partnership with Skype where the two companies will present advertisers with the opportunity to market on Skype, in combination with Meebo. Meebo will represent Skype advertising sales exclusively in the U.S. marketplace. Visa and Universal Pictures are the first advertisers to sign up with Skype and Meebo, with campaigns slated to launch in early March.
The new Skype advertising experience will feature a high-impact display ad within the “Home” tab in Skype for Windows (version 5.1 or later) through a rich, interactive ad unit. Advertisers can choose from several packages including a “Home” display ad on Skype, and takeovers across Meebo.com and the Meebo iPhone app.
“This is the first step in providing a Skype offering for advertisers,” said Andy Sims, director of advertising for Skype. “We are looking forward to working with Meebo’s sales team to introduce it to the marketplace. We chose Meebo for their established sales team, and relationships with world-class advertisers.”
“People are spending an enormous amount of time connecting and communicating across the Meebo and Skype platforms,” said Carter Brokaw, chief revenue officer at Meebo. “For advertisers looking for high engagement and time spent with heavy communicators on the web, the Meebo and Skype combination is a one-two punch.”
Skype had 145 million average connected users for the fourth quarter of 2010, 29 million concurrent users at peak times, and Skype-to-Skype calling minutes were equivalent to approximately 20% of the total of all global international PSTN and Skype-to-Skype calling minutes. Meebo reaches 37 percent of the U.S. Internet population with nearly 78 million monthly unique visitors and 165 million worldwide (source: comScore January 2010).
“Driving international usage of Visa cards is a key priority for Visa and users of Skype are more likely to travel and transact internationally than the general population,” said Alex Craddock, Head of USA Marketing at Visa Inc. “To be the first to work with both Meebo and Skype in a highly engaged environment is a great opportunity for us.”
About Meebo
Reaching more than 164 million unique visitors worldwide, Meebo provides the easiest, most open and most “right there where you want it” way to share on the web. Integrating all social networks and communications channels into a single, simple-to-use solution, Meebo enables people to easily share content and communicate in real time with those who matter to them, and connects them to others on the numerous websites that have installed the Meebo Bar, through mobile devices and via Meebo Messenger. The privately held company was founded in 2005. For more information, visit www.meebo.com.
About Skype
Skype is a communications platform provider whose purpose is to break down barriers to communication. With an Internet-connected device, families, friends and colleagues can get together for free with messaging, voice and video. At low cost, they can also call landlines or mobiles virtually anywhere in the world. Skype has recently introduced group video, allowing groups of more than two people to do things together whenever they’re apart. Skype was founded in 2003 and is based in Luxembourg. Skype can be downloaded onto computers, mobile phones and other connected devices for free at www.skype.com.
1For the year ended 31 December 2010, according to estimates published by TeleGeography in January 2011
