The history of Skype

THE HISTORY OF SKYPE

“Sky Peer to Peer” is the full name of Skype. This software was launched fifteen years ago which was in August, 2003. The founders of Skype are the Estonian developers Zahti Heinla, Priit Kasesalu and Jaan Tallinn, Danish developer Janus Friis and Sweden’s Niklas Zenntrom. These founders met for the first time at the Swedish telecom company called Tele2. Niklas Zenntrom and Janus Friis were employees at the company and the Estonians started to work at Tele2 after the company had a problem which was having trouble with its portal called Everyday.com.

Even though the Estonians had done a splendid job for Tele2, Everyday.com portal still failed commercially. As a result for the event, Niklas Zenntrom and Janus Friis left the company. After leaving the company, they came up with new business ideas; Kazaa. Kazaa is a peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing program that allowed its users to transfer files directly from one computer to another. Jaan Tallinn helped them to develop this program as they decided to create this program at Jaan Tallinn’s home at the first place. Kazaa became the most downloaded program on the Internet after launching in September 2000. However, on the business side, the Swede and Dane failed to seal a deal which caused damage to Kazaa.

In the summer of 2002, the idea to work on Skype began. Niklas Zenntrom and Janus Friis wanted to create a new service which is allowing its users to make voice calls cheap and easy by sharing data P2P, just like Kazaa with the collaboration of the Estonians. The originated name for the project came from the words “sky” and “peer”. However, since there are a lot of acronyms existed, the name was shortened to “Skyper” and the ‘r’ was removed later due to the domain of Skyper.com was already taken. As has been mentioned, Skype’s 0.9 Beta only allow its users to make voice calls for free. In 2005, the version of 2.0 Beta was introduced which allowed the users to make Skype’s well-known service nowadays – video calls – for free via internet.

In the same year, eBay decided to acquire Skype with the transaction of $2.5 billion. However during eBay ownership, there were voices saying that the price for Skype was overvalued which lead Skype to introduce Skypecasts in May 2006 in order to value up the program. Skypecasts allowed users to have voice conversations with up to 100 participants. Unfortunately, the Skypecasts only active until September 2008 which caused eBay to pulled the plug as it assumed Skype failed to maintain the minimum quality standard.

By 2010, Skype started to go into mobile marketplace such as Android, iPhone and iPad. Initially, Skype only allowed the users to make voice calls for free with their mobile. However in December 2010, the famous Skype video calls available on iPhone. Around six months later, Android users are able to enjoy the same access. Skype was not stopping with that, it decided to expand into new markets and manage to achieve the accessibility to such applications as Linux, smart TVs, Skype phones and consoles. The decision to go into new markets was actually one the greatest decision made by Skype because in May 2011, Microsoft acquired Skype for $8.5 billion. At this point, Skype’s version 5.3 reigned which included Facebook integration and offered group video calls. In November 2012, Skype would become Microsoft main messaging service which could eliminate its proprietary Messenger service. The Skype’s program has gone beyond its original scheme splendidly.

 WHAT IS SO SPECIAL ABOUT SKYPE?

At this part we would compare the working atmosphere at the very beginning at Skype to what has changed after Microsoft bought Skype.

We found a few interviews with the staff who worked for Skype, and with the co-founders. According to the interviews with the staff, we listed the characteristics that make Skype become a company , which shows leadership.

According to the Magazin (this is a magazine from Taiwan)

－Before 2005, the working environment of Skype was not the best, but the working atmosphere was really good. The working hour is completely flexible.People can decide when they want to work when they want to get off from work.  Eileen Burbidge talked about her working experience at skype.
Eileen Burbidge  gave up the job at yahoo, she decided to work at skype. She worked for the branch in London for eight months and for free. But of course she got the paid she deserved afterwards. According to her interview, she said that Zennström talked with her only about what she should do at work and something like that. But they never talked about the salary.  She said to the interviewer that the eight months of work was the best time she ever had at work. She noticed that estonian team worked efficiently and the supervisors didnt have their ego. The whole team focused on bringing the company to success. She even said: “They have this kind of sense of responsibility, which I have never ever seen.”
And this comments links to the interview with one of the co-founder. Priit Kasesalu

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