Warsaw — 22 June 2005 — Onet.pl SA (“Onet”), Poland’s most successful portal and Skype Technologies S.A., the Global Internet Telephony Company™, today announced an ‘Onet-Skype’ client for the Polish market, part of a long-term strategic partnership.
Onet today launched a co-branded version of Skype for Windows v1.3 for its portal users, enabling Polish consumers to download the Onet-Skype software to call friends and family for free. Additionally, Onet-Skype users will enjoy low global calling rates for Skype’s pre-paid premium offerings including SkypeOut, the beta version of SkypeIn and Skype Voicemail. Onet will provide local payment methods for premium offerings for the Polish market.
“The combination of Skype’s top class voice communications technologies and value added services with Onet’s Internet media platform and captive customer base is a powerful mix in the Polish market. I am convinced Onet-Skype will revolutionize the way in which our users communicate with each other and around the world,” said Lukasz Wejchert, Onet President & CEO.
“We’re pleased to join with Onet and deliver a custom Skype application,” said Niklas Zennström, Skype CEO and co-founder. “Poland has been a lead market for Skype since our launch in 2003. With this partnership, Onet becomes an important partner in delivering modern communications.”
Onet-Skype will be supported with a significant multi-media advertising campaign.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Onet.pl
Portal Onet.pl was founded in June, 1996. In the middle of 2001 Onet.pl was acquired by ITI Holdings, media group that is owner, among other, of TV stations (e.g. TVN, TVN 24, TVN Siedem), movie theaters chain Multikino and Pascal Publishing House.
Onet.pl is by far Poland's most popular and successful portal. Since the end of year 1999, when the first independent research was published, Onet.pl have retained leader position ahead of Wirtualna Polska and Interia.pl. On a monthly basis it records over 2.2 billion page views.
Currently the portal offers the widest range of information and other services in Polish Internet. In includes leading global web-searching mechanisms, a range of thematic, encyclopedic, e-commerce, classified, communication and social services, as well as data bases.
Onet.pl is a pioneer in income diversification. Onet.pl develops and launches new types of advertising and, with an estimated share of over 40% of the Polish Internet advertising market, is the Internet medium most frequently used by leading advertisers. According to brand awareness research 97 percent of Polish Internet users recognizes Onet.pl brand (aided brand awareness).
