Skype: 10 years of shrinking the world
Launched in 2003, 300 million users now make 2 billion minutes of video calls a day. Sold for $8.5 billion to Microsoft in 2011.
Launched in 2003, 300 million users now make 2 billion minutes of video calls a day. Sold for $8.5 billion to Microsoft in 2011.
A woman communicates with her family abroad by using the Internet telephone system Skype. Skype celebrates its 10th anniversary on Thursday.
TECHNOLOGY
Skype marks 10 years of shrinking the world
28/08/2013
AFP
If David Huang had left his native Taiwan for Sweden a generation ago, he would have taken a giant leap into the unknown.
Now, with the help of Skype, the 35-year-old businessman is able to reach relatives from his Stockholm home as easily as if they lived around the corner, and not half a world away.
"Skype has made work easier, but more important than that, it has enabled me to talk to my family whenever I feel like it," he said.
Internet messaging service Skype, which celebrates its 10th anniversary on Thursday, has shrunk the world in profound ways that few could have foreseen in 2003.
A total of 300 million users make two billion minutes of online video calls a day...
..."The significance of Skype was and is the 'Wow!' experience of high definition voice, and the sense of 'being there' with your distant friends and family in a way not possible before."
Skype was released in August 2003 -- written by a team of Estonian software developers ...and launched by two Scandinavian technology entrepreneurs... who expanded on existing peer-to-peer networking technologies.
...While Skype helps people to stay in touch with those they already know, it also enables new connections to be formed.
One example was when students aged between 11 and 15... in Britain and ... Wisconsin carried out a cross-Atlantic dance contest...
"They had seen films from abroad, but to actually physically speak to these kids in America was absolutely brilliant. It was amazing."
Skype isn't for humans only. At one Texas zoo, orangutans are rewarded for completing tasks by being allowed to communicate via Skype with orangutans in other zoos.
The question many ask however is: Is it possible to make money on a business offering free calls? US software maker Microsoft thought so, paying $8.5 billion for Skype in 2011.
In the 12 months ended on June 30, the Microsoft division which includes Skype made $848 million, up from $380 million the year before.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/tech/computer/366810/skype-marks-10-years-of-shrinking-the-world