Skype is hoping to play a more important role in business meetings. On Tuesday, Skype said that it would introduce a conference calling service that will let multiple people talk, see each other through online video and share documents.
The service, which is expected to be available near the end of the year, is part of a broader Skype strategy to create more products for corporate users that it can charge for. Skype is trying to find new ways to make money because the vast majority of its 145 million users pay nothing to make online calls.
The conference calling service is being done in partnership with Citrix, a software company that already enables online meetings with GoToMeeting. Citrix will integrate some of GoToMeeting s technology into Skype s conferencing service so that people can dial-in by phone and share documents among multiple users.
Financial terms of the partnership were undisclosed.
Skype already offers a free conference calling service that allows just two users to meet online and share what is on their computer screens. The coming paid version, which will be available through Skype s business service, Skype for Business, will allow more participants and capabilities, which is what corporate users demand.
It puts Skype into competition with conferencing services like Cisco System s WebEx and Microsoft s Live Meeting.
David Gurle, vice president of Skype s business unit, said that Skype is investing heavily in corporate products as part of its expansion effort. Around 40 per cent of Skype users already use Skype s paid and free services for business purposes, he said.
Many of them are asking for more conferencing capabilities, Mr. Gurle said. All they will have to do is to click on a button in their Skype window to start a meeting and use their Skype contact list to invite participants.
The price and name of Skype s conferencing has yet to be determined. Skype has filed for an initial public offering, which is expected to take place sometime later this year.
Brett Caine, senior vice president of online services for Citrix, said that the point was to let people work any way and from anywhere they want to work, whether on their phones or through Skype.
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