What would Skype's response be to someone wanting to give away a "Million" Skype minutes? That's just the sort of question I get asked from time to time. Now a million minutes is quite a number and yet at 2 cents per minute represents only K$20. While this promotion could be all sorts... from "lifetime" of free Skype calling, to providing "rewards" or minute points for participation the key question for this reader was can it be done? Or can they do it via an affiliate program?
It did get me thinking about reward programs and how a Skype client might in the future be leveraged to "disperse" the wealth. In fact Skype just becomes a wallet.
At the moment there is no way to go online and buy a million minutes. There is also no simple automated way to distribute them. To obtain them by making lots of purchases would fail, for Skype payments would stop you adding the largest $ amount and repeating at roughly minute intervals. .
Second you need a way to send minutes. Although minutes are really cash. What we all secretly want is the capability to drag and drop dollars. Actually just being able to send money or view my PayPal account balance in Skype will be quite a step forward. Enable me to drag and drop and we are one step closer to handling those clumsy lunch bills. Particuarly when Skype is on a Mobile. It even then works for stores!
Then this is where it could get interesting for developers. For if I have that money in my account and I can allocate it then the question is... can I access it via the API? So for our friend above who wants a reward program could he then connect the program to a Skype client? Connected with the API he now has a payment system. We just have to hope that his programming is not flawed. Otherwise someone will clean out his online wallet.
Can it be so simple... allocating dollars and accessing the capability via the API. Nobody wants to download a program that will take over their bank account. And yet wtih spending limits etc is the risk any greater or different to losing an ATM card? Surely Paypal can factor that into service charges? The future of drag and drop money is near! What icon will be used? Skype bucks?
Finally for the weird thoughts and twisting logic of this post.
I'd note the above is just a variation on charging for a call capabilities. However the opportunity Skype has to combine PayPal, and Skype ID's will also provide an opportunity to register phone numbers with Paypal. Thus I could even send money to another phone number. Skype then collects on SkypeOut and a commission on the transfer. The Skyper would know whether or not they are a "verified" number. Paypal already does this for bank accounts. This same system would enable me to send a payment as part of a three way real-time conversation. Eg my buddy and the storekeeper.
Nothing like paying for someone else's groceries over Skype. Right?
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Errm, and gift vouchers are what? Chopped liver?
There are 2 questions here, one is the ability to distribute a large amount of Skype minutes or balance, and the other is to create a system where there is a 'money supply' that can be transferred between users of the system.
Gift vouchers allow for distribution, but they are always additive. You cannot use the balance you put on an account except to buy a Skype service. This is no doubt deliberate by Skype, as they go out of their way to make it impossible to RE-distribute balance - look at the Skype Groups business thing. You must buy at group level and the group is not a normal account, once the money is allocated down, it cannot be reallocated up to the group again.
At the moment it's a walled garden as far as the Skype balance is concerned. Over the years that Skype has been in existence this feature has been requested dozens of times and people have even written white papers and posted them on the Skype site.
I'm glad you see the potential, I just can't believe you only had your epiphany yesterday?
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