Amazon Brings Alexa Skills Monetization to France, Italy, and Spain
Amazon has extended the ability to monetize Alexa skills to France, Italy, and Spain. The in-skill purchasing option allows developers in those countries to create premium content that users can buy through the voice assistant while using the skill.
European Growth
In-skill purchasing allows developers to create and customize products within the skills they create. Subscription or one-time purchase models are both within the voice assistant’s capability. Once the market is in place, developers can add new products, or remove them from the virtual store, with metrics for determining how well different products are selling. When a user buys something through the skill, the developer takes a 70 percent cut of the fee.
Developers started monetizing Alexa skills in the U.S. 2017, beginning with the Jeopardy! game skill subscription. Alexa added in-skill purchasing as a feature in Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom this summer. Like those countries, the first Alexa skills in Italy, France, and Spain to employ in-skill purchases are games and quizzes, as well as a skill to help locate misplaced phones and one that plays sounds designed to help users sleep.
Monetizing Voice
Amazon has been eager to come up with new ways to encourage developers to make useo of the features, such as making a tool to integrate monetization directly into the skill software. Alexa also added the option for creating skills with premium content for children. Within that space, kids can’t make purchases on their own, instead, the account holder will receive an approval request and have a day to respond if they want the purchase to go through.
The company has also been using special deals and promotions to encourage developers to include mini-markets within the skills they make. Recently, Amazon even set in-skill purchasing as the theme for its latest Alexa Skills Challenge, with a $25,000 grand prize and several other cash prizes. Amazon is likely far from done lavishing resources on encouraging the growth of in-skill purchases, and more countries will have the chance to take part in this kind of commerce soon.
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