Get ready for Alexa skills pop-up ads on your Amazon Echo Show
Enlarge / Amazon Echo Show 15. (credit: Scharon Harding)
Amazon will begin selling ads to developers to promote their Alexa skills and apps on the platform, according to a report from Bloomberg on Wednesday.
According to Bloomberg, Amazon is "inviting developers to advertise their apps" on Alexa in the form of pop-up ads on the screens of the company's Echo Show smart displays. The goal is to hold developer interest, which gravitates more toward smartphone apps, while making a new revenue stream. Bloomberg said the former is the priority.
Amazon VP Aaron Rubenson, who works on developer tools, told Bloomberg that paid ads are something that developers have asked us for." But it's likely not something customers have asked for-at least not directly.