LOS ANGELES (BNO NEWS) -- Internet communication service Skype on Monday announced it will start including advertisements in its services in the hopes of boosting the company's income.

Chief Marketing Officer Doug Bewsher made the announcement on Skype's blog, saying the company has been experimenting with advertisements since January. "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," Bewsher wrote.

Bewsher said it is working with several advertisers, including Groupon, Universal Pictures, and Visa. "Ads will appear in the US, UK and Germany and advertising sales for Skype are initially focused in those markets," he added.

For now, the advertisements will only be shown in the Home tab in Skype for Windows, but Bewsher notes that the company may introduce more ads or move them to other locations. "We may experiment with ads in other areas as well," he said.

Skype said it also may use location, gender and age settings to display the right advertisements to the intended target group. "For example, if you're in the US, we don't want to show you ads for a product that is only available in the UK," Bewsher said. He notes that users can opt-out of allowing Skype to share data with advertisers from the Privacy tab in Tools -> Options.

"We believe that advertising, when done in the right way, will help us continue to invest in developing great products," Bewsher adds. "The ads won't interrupt your Skype experience. You won't suddenly see annoying pop-up ads or flashy banner ads in middle of conversations."

As of June 30 last year, Skype had 124 million active users on a monthly basis. Of the 124 million, only 8.1 million pay anything.

(Copyright 2011 by BNO News B.V. All rights reserved. Info: sales@bnonews.com.)