Abbiamo già parlato di Skype Prime, il nuovo servizio di Skype che permette di essere pagati per le chiamate che si ricevono: utile per chi vuole vendere la propria esperienza, consulenza.

Skype trattiene il 30% dal pagamento per ogni chiamata, che avviene tramite Paypal. I pagamenti arrivano dopo 120 giorni.

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.

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.