Amazon Brings Skill Monetization to the UK and Germany
Amazon is extending the option for in-skill Alexa payment to developers in the United Kingdom and Germany starting this week. The two countries are the third and fourth nations to have the option to monetize Alexa skills, just days after the program first came to Japan.
As Voicebot previously reported, Alexa skill monetization became available in the U.S. around two years ago with a subscription for the Jeopardy! game skill. Since then, Amazon has worked to improve and streamline the monetization system, for instance offering a tool to integrate monetization into the skill software.
Virtual Purchases
Depending on the kind of service developers want to offer, purchases can be one-time or recurring, and premium products can be added or removed from a skill’s virtual store. Amazon takes a 30 percent cut of all purchases, and developers can track the sales rate of their products and adjust accordingly.
Though there aren’t industry-wide metrics available as of yet, Amazon has touted a few examples of app developers bringing in significant income from their premium offerings and has claimed that there is a large, untapped market for in-skill purchases, both in existing skills and in ones that haven’t yet been created. To encourage developers to make Alexa skills with a virtual store in the U.S., Amazon has regularly offered special deals and promotions to those who include in-skill purchases as an option.
International Expansion
The first wave of in-skill purchases for Germany and the UK run the gamut of games and services. Both countries have language learning skill subscription options, as well as features like a cell phone locator skill in Germany and a hypnotherapy session skill in the UK.
Amazon has hinted at plans to grow its in-skill purchasing map beyond these early countries but hasn’t yet made public where they will look to next. The concerted effort by Amazon to grow the voice assistant developer community beyond the United States in general, and the rapid-fire roll-out to Germany and the UK after Japan suggests the company wants to cover more of the globe as fast as it can feasibly arrange it.
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