Vapps introduced a premium version of its VoIP conference-calling service for Skype users Tuesday, adding the ability to record, download, and moderate calls of up to 500 participants.

The Hoboken, New Jersey-based company introduced free conference calls for Skype users in June (see Vapps, Skype Free Conferences). In September, Vapps expanded the free service to users of Yahoo Messenger’s VoIP service (see Yahoo to Do Conference Calls).

The service fits into Skype’s plans to appeal to a broader market of business users since the Luxembourg-based company was acquired by eBay last year.

Like the free service, the premium version leverages Vapps’ Highspeedconferencing.com site but costs $4.99 per month for the moderating, recording, and downloading features. Users can also indicate when they want to “raise their hands” during the course of the call to participate.

“In working with Skype, it’s really a SOHO small business kind of solution,” said Vapps CEO Ben Lilienthal. “For us it’s a way of beginning to monetize the user base.”

Even without promoting the service, he noted, Vapps had already signed up 30 users in the past couple of days since the company began testing the service.

Vapps has tens of thousands of users signed up for its Highspeedconferencing service, so Mr. Lilienthal expects to see a good conversion rate, especially for business users of Skype.

Skype has 113 million registered users. Most of them use the service for calls from home, but a considerable percentage is employing the VoIP service at work as well.

“Conference calling through Skype has proven to be a very popular feature, especially among our business users,” Michael Jackson, general manager of paid services at Skype, said in a statement. “In fact, a third of our users use it for their business needs. The addition of premium services makes Skype for Business even more robust and allows Skype customers to improve productivity.”

It also represents a good opportunity for both eBay and Vapps to monetize the service. Privately held Vapps is funded by angel investors such as a former vice chairman of Lehmann Brothers and the chief executive of Pulte Homes.

Contact the writer:MCohn@RedHerring.com

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