Who invented skype. History of Skype: Interesting about Skype What year did Skype appear

Today, many criticize Skype, a popular online calling service that Microsoft acquired in 2011 for $ 8.5 billion. Former fans of the app complain on social media that the software has become very difficult to use. In the App Store and Google Play, people write negative reviews - users are not satisfied with the poor call quality and the huge battery consumption of the application.

In March, technology investor and columnist Oi Malik tweeted that Skype was once the "benchmark for quality," and expressed his outrage at the company's owner. “This is the destruction of Skype. I was forced to use it today, but it won't happen again. "

Microsoft believes the criticism is exaggerated. They are sure that part of it is due to software updates. Of course, there are other factors that make many "skypers" look for new platforms for communication.

After acquiring Skype, Microsoft refocused it on the corporate market. Due to these changes, the online calling service has become less user-friendly, and many users have switched to other applications owned by Apple, Google and Facebook.

Photo: Bloomberg. Steve Ballmer

Microsoft last released data on the number of Skype users in 2016. Then the application was used by about 300 million people. Some analysts believe that this figure has not changed since then. Two ex-Microsoft employees, who wished to remain anonymous, say that at the end of 2017, this number remained the same in user statistics.

In 2003, Skype was founded by a pair of Scandinavian entrepreneurs. The app freed people from the tyranny of telephone companies by offering cheap international calls. Most used the service for free, and Skype money brought prepaid calls to regular phones. The company had many owners, including eBay. By 2011, it was under the control of a consortium of investors led by the Silver Lake fund.

In an effort to reduce Microsoft's dependence on the personal computer market, former CEO Steve Ballmer decided to acquire Skype. He was attracted by the great potential of this internet brand and paid 40% more than the estimated value for it.

“It was the most recognizable brand at the time. For Microsoft, it was an opportunity to be part of something great, ”said Laurie Wright, Skype's top manager.

Since its acquisition, Skype has always been positioned as a tool for making cheap or free international calls. Former Skype CFO Bill Kofod recalls how border officials in other countries kept telling him, "I can call my grandmother with Skype!" "Skype is a legendary brand," he says.

Initially, Microsoft's management promised to keep Skype independent of its Lync corporate communications service. However, two years later, platform integration began, resulting in Skype for Business, which became part of the Microsoft Office suite.

Today, Microsoft has literally replaced the corporate phone system with an application, adding messenger, AI and social networking elements. Teams, the Microsoft version of Slack, with Skype for Business. LinkedIn, another company acquired by Microsoft, will provide skypers with professional profiles of the people they intend to call. In addition, Skype can now translate calls into twelve languages.

As proof of the effectiveness of the new strategy, Microsoft cites the fact that Skype for Business clients include the industrial giant General Electric, the consulting company Accenture and the world's leading banks. Forrester analysts surveyed more than 6,000 IT employees in companies and found that 28% of them prefer Skype for Business for conferencing, and only 21% use competing Cisco products for this.

Atkins, an architectural and engineering design, construction and consulting firm, claims 18,500 employees use Skype for calls, conferences and projects. “We fully analyzed the competition, but trusted Microsoft's vision. It is very rare that we run into problems of any kind, ”says Nick Ledger, collaboration manager at Atkins.

However, Microsoft paid a high price in putting the interests of corporations ahead of those of users. If for the former, the most important thing is the safety of the service, its complexity and multicomponent, then for the latter, simplicity and convenience. As a result, the complexity of enterprise software has supplanted the simplicity that users value. Although Microsoft maintains two separate applications — for business customers and ordinary users — both are based on the same technology, which is now based on the needs of corporate employees.

Skype tried to fit everyone and therefore “always lost to the competition,” says Matthew Cullnine, an expert in user experience and content strategy at The Open University, UK.

Frequent app updates don't help either. After the design changes in the summer of 2017, Skype's ratings plummeted. Journalist Brian Krebs tweeted that the recent redesign was "probably the worst ever." This tweet and a huge number of retweets caught the attention of the Skype team: “Brian, we are sorry for your inconvenience. Looking forward to hearing more criticism. We'll see if we can help you with something. "

Carolina Milanesei, an analyst at Creative Strategies, shared: “We all loved Skype for what it was - simple and no-nonsense. Now he's not the same. " Previously, she often used a paid Skype subscription to call her mom in Italy. Then her mother bought an iPad, and they've been chatting on Facetime ever since.

Focusing on the corporate market, Microsoft also ignored the rise in popularity of instant messengers like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and WeChat. Microsoft killed Windows Live Messenger five years ago, just as WhatsApp's audience was starting to grow. The messenger now has 1.5 billion users, and its functions include key capabilities of Skype.

Perhaps, by the evening of May 10, the popular Internet resource Skype will have a new owner.

Skype was created by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis. The first release of the program and the website appeared in September 2003. The headquarters is located in Luxembourg.

In October 2005. the company was bought by eBay for about $ 2.6 billion (later another $ 500 million was paid in addition), but already at the end of 2009. an online auction got rid of Skype, selling 65% of its shares to a group of investors for $ 1.9 billion: investment company Silver Lake, venture capital company Andreessen Horowitz (owned by Netscape founders Mark Andreessen and Ben Horowitz), venture capital company Index Ventures, and investment company of the retirement fund of Canada.

EBay has previously tried to sell Skype, explaining the offer by the fact that the provider is a non-core asset for the company. However, it never came to a deal due to a disagreement with potential buyers in terms of purchase and the price itself.

Initially, Skype planned to go public through an initial public offering (IPO) of shares. During the IPO, the company hoped to raise about $ 1 billion. On May 5, 2011, it was reported that two online giants - Facebook and Google - were showing interest in buying the popular Internet telephony service Skype. The two companies have independently stepped up negotiations for a possible joint venture with a web-based video conferencing service. At the same time, Facebook is considering the possibility of acquiring Skype in its entirety, the source said. The estimated price of the proposed deal was announced at about $ 4 billion.

That being said, the deal between Facebook and Skype made more sense, since Google already has a similar service - Google Voice.

On May 10, information appears in the media about the possible purchase of the popular Internet telephony service Skype by Microsoft, while the price of the transaction is already expected to be twice as much as the competitors initially offered - about $ 8 billion.

At the moment, negotiations on the possibility of buying Skype are still ongoing, and only by the evening of Tuesday, May 10, the official outcome of the deal will be finally known.

Thus, if the deal goes through, the purchase of Skype, which is used by more than 660 million people around the world, will be the largest acquisition in Microsoft's history.

Updated! The deal took place!

Microsoft's proposed $ 8.5 billion was a record amount for Skype, which was estimated at a modest $ 2.75 billion just a year and a half ago. In this situation, the usually thrifty American corporation chose to overpay, but it was guaranteed to rid itself of competitors such as Google and Facebook, which looked at things more realistically.

In a joint official press release from Microsoft and Skype, it is said that Skype will become part of the corporation as a separate division. It will be chaired by the current executive director of Skype, Tony Bates. He will report directly to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

But the main thing that interests the multimillion-dollar Skype audience is what fate will befall the service after its transition to a new owner. Anticipating this, Microsoft was quick to announce that it will continue to support versions of Skype for "foreign" platforms. These include both Skype clients for desktop Mac OS X and Linux and mobile applications for iOS, Android and Symbian operating systems.

Otherwise, Microsoft intends to dispose of the service as follows. First of all, a version of Skype for the Windows Phone 7 platform will be released. It is logical to assume that the Skype client will be preinstalled on devices based on this OS - including Windows smartphones made by Nokia, which should be released in late 2011 or early 2012. If at one time Apple had to develop the FaceTime video service for its computers and mobile devices literally from scratch, then Microsoft received it, in fact, ready-made.

Second, Steve Ballmer's company highlighted that it will integrate its own online services with Skype, including Hotmail, Windows Live, Lync, the business communications platform, and Outlook.

Thirdly, Microsoft will find application for Skype in the field of video games. It was announced that users of the Xbox 360 game console will be able to work with the VoIP service. The Kinect controller is also planned to be used in the video chat - how is anyone's guess. The company already offers gamers a service for video calls Kinect Video with gesture control function. Based on Kinect Video, Microsoft plans to launch the Avatar Kinect service, where instead of users, virtual characters will appear on the screen, repeating their movements and facial expressions.

A piece of the Skype pie could fall out of the race, Facebook - after all, it is Microsoft that owns a 1.3 percent stake in the social network.

Agree with Skype most users have long been associated with something incredibly solid and serious. Perhaps Skype is really a serious thing, since so many people use it and so many other people want to know exactly how the first ones use it. Only here is the history of the creation of Skype, and the history of its further development from the words "serious" and "solid", if not very far, then, at least, clearly not close.

Exactly Skype today it is almost the absolute leader in the number of dark stories, semi-legal deals and patent scandals. There are so many dark spots in the history of the program that according to this criterion, it can easily win the title of world champion in gray schemes. However, while these are just words, let's get down to the facts.

Skype backstory: pirate parents make KaZaA

You may not believe me, but the founders of the program (not the developers, please note) were people with far from the most impeccable reputation. For the sake of completeness, let's jump back to the very beginning of the 2000s, when two enterprising companions Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström(pictured on the right) invented and released a file sharing program KaZaA... The program, which at one time broke many records in the number of downloads.

It should be said that the founders of the file hosting were mainly engaged in organizational and marketing issues, and our former compatriots, Estonians, were engaged in the implementation and creation of the project as such. Jaan Tallinn, Priit Kazesalu and Ahti Heinla(pictured on the left). All three programmers studied in the same class.

And so, until the end of 2001, the file-sharing network was doing just fine, but then thunder struck: several very large music labels filed a lawsuit against the owners for copyright infringement. In fact, the program was declared illegal, and its owners were accomplices of the pirates.

The founders of the service had to urgently go underground: the possibility of arrest and subsequent punishment was by no means illusory. For the time being, Estonian programmers were not interested in the investigation, but then their turn came to them. Fortunately, no specific charges were brought against them.

The problems ended only at the end of 2001, when the owners of KaZaA resold the service to an Australian company. Sharman Networks.

The former owners made a very wise move by registering in advance the exclusive rights to the data transfer protocol. Global Index P2P offshore (Virgin Islands). They now had a protected patent that European investigators could no longer reach. But for the sake of why such complex machinations were carried out, I will tell you in the next section.

Creation of Skype

As I already said, KaZaA was based on the P2P protocol, which, in fact, was the main feature of the service. Its unusualness is that the protocol code is closed and extremely complex, and all transmitted data are subject to mandatory encryption. In addition, it is convenient in that when using it, you do not need any special one: the users connected to computers act in the role. Accordingly, this drastically complicates the interception and tracking of any transmitted information.

And having such a big trump card in my hands, it would be just a crime not to create something innovative on its basis. In fact, this is exactly what the enterprising and forward-looking Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström did. Having received money to start a new project from a well-known venture capitalist, they began developing a perfect new client for the transmission of voice and other types of messages.

This is true, this was known to everyone today Skype.

Since the owners of Skype already had the guys "in the know" (the same team of Estonian programmers), it didn't take long to start - August 29, 2003 the first official release of the program was released, which immediately attracted the attention of thousands of users.

What exactly did Skype take? Perhaps the main advantages were ease of use and excellent sound quality. Later - also multiplatform. In fact, a powerful blow was struck in the gut of the entire cellular telephony industry, because now communication between users anywhere in the world was completely free.

Among other things, Skype has become popular not only among law-abiding users, the service has also attracted all sorts of criminals, drug dealers, terrorists and in general everyone who did not welcome advertising their negotiations too much. Due to the fact that the data was almost guaranteed to be protected from interception, Skype has become the favorite means of communication for many dark personalities.

It got to the point that hundreds of complaints from intelligence agencies of a dozen countries came to the Luxembourg office of Skype. The requirements were similar: prohibit, declassify, allow. Only the founders of Skype were already scientists: they had an impeccable legal base on their side, which was 100% protected from external intrusion and attacks from anyone.

Ebay and Skype

By 2005, Skype had become so popular that the largest on the planet became interested in it. To tell the truth, the auctioneers themselves did not know what exactly this service had surrendered to, but they felt its colossal potential, and therefore began negotiations on the purchase.

In the fall of 2005, Ebay announced the purchase of Skype for a fabulous amount of $ 2.6 billion for that time.

It would seem that a period of recognition and tranquility has come, you can rest on your laurels and spend your profits. Nothing of the kind: the former owners of the service managed to enter the same river twice. Paradoxically, they filed a lawsuit against Skype, accusing the company that it has no right to consider the P2P protocol its own, since the patent for the invention is still in the hands of the old owners. Cunning, agree ?!

I will not tell you about the long twists and turns, which, by the way, lasted more than one year, I will only say that the noise was hefty. The bottom line of all this is as follows: in November 2009, Skype was sold again, and the former pirates received a 14% stake in the service and seats on the board of directors. And this is without a penny investment, by the way. They just gave up on Ebay's legal action (patent misuse, remember?).

During those four years, while Skype owned Ebay, the service managed to turn into a "candy", becoming truly popular and loved all over the world. For greater effect, I will indicate only one figure: the number of users has grown from 55 to 400 million. The service was waiting for new owners who could afford such an expensive toy.

The era of Microsoft in Skype

And the big fish pecked. In 2011, an agreement was reached on the purchase of Skype by a well-known company for, again, a record $ 8.5 billion. Of course, Microsoft's lawyers have now done everything to prevent a repeat of the patent embarrassment. The rights to Skype were obtained in absolute volume, and the cunning Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström again had a considerable profit in the form of hundreds of millions of dollars for their stake. In fact, they managed to get money from different companies twice for the same product. That's really, really, the sharks of capitalism.

The new owners got down to business seriously, since their resources were almost endless. It is thanks to powerful technical support and huge financial investments that Skype is one of the most popular and demanded programs in the world today. The number of users has already exceeded half a billion a long time ago, and this, as experts say, is far from the limit.

She's so incredible history of creation of Slype... The history of a service that brought billions to someone, and to someone only a headache and numerous problems. And this, I can assure you, is only a small part of the iceberg. A lot of facts are still reliably hidden from the general public and are unlikely to ever be made public at all.

From Monday March 30, 2020, a restriction of movement in the city will be introduced in the capital (home mode of self-isolation) for all residents of Moscow, regardless of age.

The corresponding Decree numbered 34-UM dated March 29, 2020 was signed by Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin on March 29, 2020. The new document makes changes (supplements) the previously issued Decree number 12-UM of 03/05/2020.

We tell what can and cannot be done in accordance with the new decree.

Despite the introduced self-isolation regime, in some cases it is still possible to leave the house. We list these cases below.

When you can leave the house:
* In case of seeking emergency medical care.
* In the event of a threat to life or health.
* In the case of going to the place of activity (work), the implementation of which is not prohibited. Earlier we wrote about
* To purchase products and goods - to the nearest store.
* In the case of walking pets - at a distance of no more than 100 meters from the place of residence.
* If necessary, take out the garbage - to the nearest place of accumulation of waste.

If you still need to leave the house, you should follow a number of rules.

How to behave on the street, in public places and public transport:
* It is necessary to maintain distance (social distancing), that is, do not approach other citizens at a distance of less than one and a half meters, with the exception of taxi rides.
* Observe the requirements of the special markings on social distancing in the places where they are applied.

The Decree does not apply to:
* for cases of rendering honey. help.
* on the activities of law enforcement agencies and other bodies whose actions are aimed at ensuring the safety of citizens.
* on the movement of road transport.
* for citizens who have been issued special passes.
* in cases of arrival and departure from the city.

Until what date will the self-isolation regime for all residents of Moscow, introduced from March 30, 2020, last:

In a published document the expiration date of the general self-isolation regime is not specified introduced on March 30, 2020.

This means that the timing of the abolition of the home self-isolation regime will be announced additionally, after the epidemiological situation in Moscow and the region improves, and the spread of coronavirus infection begins to decline.

Skype in the modern world is the number one service for making voice and video calls. Since its inception in 2003, the messenger has been gradually improving its interface to the point where anyone with basic skills can master it quickly.

It has free and paid versions. The latest version allows users to integrate their Skype and Facebook contacts. Such popularity of the messenger draws special attention to the history of its creation.

The first steps

The first question of any user who has been using the program for years and decided to inquire about its history is "Who invented Skype?" The original founders of Skype were the Scandinavians Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, from Denmark and Sweden, respectively. Nevertheless, there were three software developers - Estonians Ahti Heinla, Priit Kazesalu and Jaan Tallinn, who created the previously famous file hosting service KaZaA.

These guys came up with a great idea - to give any user with an Internet connection the ability to communicate and talk with any other subscriber. But that's not all, it would all be completely free.

On August 29, 2003, the developers released the first official release of the application, which instantly attracted the attention of thousands of users.

This was something amazing, especially for people from less developed countries where other means of communication were expensive, limited or completely impossible. People very quickly started using Skype as a method of making free calls anywhere in the world. In the blink of an eye, the application became in demand all over the world.

The first earnings of the founders

After such a rapid popularity and demand, the creators had to think that it was time for their product to generate income. They decided to start providing paid services - direct calls to regular phones from Skype and vice versa.

Moreover, they made it possible to make such calls at really reduced prices, many times lower than ordinary landline or mobile calls.

In 2005, the messenger was actively used by more than 70 million people. Skype started bringing in good money for owners (about $ 35 million a quarter). But that was only the beginning.

Buying Skype eBay

In the same 2005, the largest and most popular eBay auction on the planet buys Skype for an astonishing $ 2.6 billion at the time. The owners of the auction did not fully understand why they needed this development, but they considered the deal to be large and profitable.

Already in the next 2006, Skype's revenue doubled and amounted to about $ 195 million. The number of active users also quickly grew to 171 million. In 2007, revenue reached $ 381 million, and there were already 278 million users.

During those four years that the messenger was in the possession of Ebay, the service has become truly popular and in demand all over the world. During this time, the number of active users has grown from 55 to 400 million.

In November 2009, the program is sold again. eBay announced that they had sold 70% of the company for $ 2.5 billion. Moreover, the very first owners, those who created the program, received a 14% stake in the service and a seat on the board of directors. Without investing a dime in the development of the service. They simply guaranteed in return that they would not be prosecuted by Ebay for illegal use of their patent.

The era of Microsoft

In 2010, the number of Skype users reached 663 million, and revenue grew 20% to $ 860 million. But the company is still losing money, despite the fact that the annual loss was only $ 7 million.

In 2011, Microsoft announced that they were buying Skype and were willing to pay a whopping $ 8.5 billion for the deal. It was the largest acquisition the Windows developers have ever made.

Microsoft executives felt comfortable paying this amount because they had big plans. They planned to integrate Skype into their applications like Windows, MS Office, etc.

Skype is available today for devices running Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8 and Windows phones. Also for Apple gadgets and Play Station Portable Sony.

Development of application versions

Skype 4.1 was launched in 2009. By 2010, Skype 4.1 was rooted in Windows, Mac, and Linux. Skype is targeting the mobile market for devices such as Android, iPhone and iPad. Earlier versions only allowed voice calls. In December 2010, Skype video calling became available for iPhone users. By June 2011, Androids are using the same access.

Skype continues to expand into new markets, becoming available for applications such as Linux, smart TVs, game consoles. Version 5.3 is released in May 2011 after the takeover of Microsoft. It includes Facebook integration and group video calling.

The program was dynamic and significantly surpassed the original design. A large number of consumers began to move to the new platform with group calling, unlimited country calls and the promise of an ad-free interface.

In November 2012, Microsoft announced that Skype would become the main messaging service. Users can sign in with their Microsoft account. The Bing search bar was also included in the installer.

The messenger is gradually adapting to the general style of Microsoft.

Skype has already established itself as the leading platform for video and voice calling, instant messaging, file and collaborative chats. Microsoft has turned Skype into a winning investment and amazing online voice and video messaging software. Its creator can be proud of his brainchild.