Luxembourg and London ¡ª May 27, 2005 ¡ª PayPal, a leading online payment service, has been added as a payment option for customers of Skype, the Global Internet Telephony Company™.
PayPal offers a secure online payments environment for users purchasing subscriptions to Skype¡¯s pre-paid premium services at the Skype Store at www.skype.com. PayPal acts as an online wallet giving buyers the flexibility to select how they want to pay for their purchase ¨C via credit cards, banking accounts or stored balance. Skype has added PayPal as an additional payment mechanism following an extensive review of the market and a beta trial of PayPal amongst Skype customers.
¡°Skype is committed to expanding payment methods to ensure smooth and consumer-friendly transactions, and we are pleased to offer our customers PayPal as an additional secure payment option,¡± said Niklas Zennström, Skype CEO and co-founder. ¡°Skype provides reliable, easy-to-use services and during beta testing PayPal proved itself as an effective and popular means of payment; we expect offering a PayPal option will help drive Skype Store transactions.¡±
PayPal enables customers to make payments directly from a bank account, with no credit card transaction required. PayPal also provides enhanced customer protection and fraud prevention systems for Skype customers making payments on the Internet.
¡°With nearly 72 million accounts worldwide, PayPal is a proven online payment method for online shoppers,¡± commented Geoff Iddison, chief executive of PayPal Europe. ¡°The partnership with Skype brings PayPal a global opportunity to expand our user base. PayPal enables Skype users to pay for the Skype services in a seamless and secure way. We look forward to sharing the convenience and security of the PayPal system with Skype users.¡±
Skype is the leading VOIP-category product worldwide, with more than 40 million registered users. Skype¡¯s pre-paid premium services provide an inexpensive way to maintain easy connectivity with ordinary fixed and mobile phones worldwide.