Social Media Today: list of freevertising products and services

Link: Social Media Today. Excerpts from their list of free things that are based on Advertising:

Telecom : Skype, Mosh  Mobile , Pumbby, Talkster, Jaxtr, Pudding Media [and I would add Blyk here]
Airlines: From low fare to no fare?  Forget low cost carriers: keep an eye on Ultra-Low Cost Carriers  (ULCCs) handing out free seats by the bucketload. These include: Wizz Air, SkyBus, Spirit and AirAsia.  
Car  rental • As-good-as-free automotive examples: LaudaMotion  lets Austrian and German customers rent an ad-plastered Smart car for exactly  three days at the cost of just one euro per day
Photo  prints • An interesting idea that’s been put on hold after an  apparently too-successful launch: French MesPhotosOffertes offered free picture processing and home  delivery in exchange for ads on the bottom of pictures
Student textbooks • U.S.-based  Freeload Press provides free college textbooks in electronic  form with advertisements inserted at chapter breaks
Travel guides • Dutch free postcards  pioneer Boomerang Media’s latest addition to its free portfolio is a free (paper) city travel guide. Created in cooperation with travel guide publisher Mo’Media.
Wifi  • With most hotspots still charging prohibitive fees for casual users, ad-sponsored wireless access points could be the next FREE success story: Metrofi has secured agreements with several cities across the U.S. to design, build and operate ad-sponsored, free municipal wifi networks for residents, visitors and city workers. Metrofi is able to  provide free access in these communities through online advertising supported by  local and national advertisers. WIGO offers free wireless internet to registered users and is available in coffee shops, commercial areas and restaurants in the Manila area. WIGO users will see a ‘WIGOBAR’ on the bottom inch of their screen, displaying banner ads from sponsors. Meanwhile, booting out T-Mobile, AT&T is installing wifi hotspots at over 7,000 Starbucks stores in the US, offering two hours of free wifi a day to Starbucks Card holders. Rollout starts early Q2 and will take until the end of this year to be completed. Next?
Google’s free wireless plans,* sponsored by, what else, Google AdWords. 
Stock  photography • Yet another FREE LOVE war in the making: stock  images. Getty Images is now competing with free sites like  Britepic, everystockphoto and stockvault. .
Notes and  photocopies • FreeHand Advertising distributes free notepaper to  students on their way to class. Japanese Tadacopy offers university  students free photocopies
Games  • In Q3, Electronic Arts will release a new, free, online version of its  popular Battlefield series, called Battlefield Heroes.
Bikes  • Copenhagen’s City Bikes are free to use: users find a bike in one of over 100 bicycle racks found around the city, throw in a DKK 20 coin (USD 3.45 / EUR 2.70) to unlock the bike, which they get back when they return the bicycle to a rack. 

Carfi @ Flickr has a nice slide that relates to this, via the SocialCustomer blog:

Comments

[Peter Parkes (Skype Blogger)]

Don't forget that Skype also makes money from users who call landlines and mobiles using Skype - it's not just about advertising :)