Yandex.Money: Best Way to Pay for Skype

Internet, December 14, 2006. Online payment system Yandex.Money signed an agreement with Skype, a global IP-telephony system. From now on, users of Skype in Russia can add money to their accounts via Yandex.Money with no commission fee.

Skype is free software allowing to make calls to other users over the Internet. A premium feature SkypeOut makes it possible to place calls from Skype to traditional and mobile phones anywhere in the world at a price that for many countries is the same as their local calls rate. For 20 most popular destinations, there is one unified rate – the SkypeOut Global Rate (EUR 0.017 per minute).

“Until now, Skype’s development in Russia was hampered by payment complexity,” explains Jane Zavalishina, CEO of Yandex.Money. “Officially, Skype only accepted credit cards, and only those issued by selected Russian banks. Unofficial intermediaries required substantial commission fees, and the payment itself took several days. Yandex.Money offers a direct, simple, and reliable means of payment to Internet users who wish to talk to people all over the world.”

Today, Yandex.Money offers SkypeOut vouchers for EUR 5, EUR 10, and EUR 25. The payer just needs to provide a Skype ID, and the chosen amount will be automatically transferred to the corresponding Skype account. There are also Skype Voicemail vouchers for EUR 5 and EUR 15.

The first 15,000 users to pay for SkypeOut with Yandex.Money in December will receive gifts of one year of free Skype Voicemail.

Skype is a rapidly developing online communication system allowing unlimited voice, video, and text message exchange. The product is available in 27 languages and is used by people all over the world. Skype also offers paid services: making and receiving calls from landline and mobile phones, voicemail and call forwarding, and personalization options (ringtones and avatars).

Yandex.Money is an online payment system – a dependable and handy tool to make instant payments for goods and services on the web. Every day, users open more than 2,000 new Wallets in the system and make over 10,000 payments for goods and services, from web-hosting and mobile communications to books and clothing.

Contacts:

Yandex.Money

Maria Gracheva, Marketing Director

Phone: (495) 739-2325

E-mail: pr@yamoney.ru

Contact:
Media Relations
Vladimir Isaev, Ochir Mandzhikov
Phone: +7 495 739-7000
E-mail: pr@yandex-team.com