![]() ![]() The iOS app would hit 1 million downloads in two days, a staggering number at the time. CEO Josh Silverman knew what he was doing however, and envisioning a mobile world in the future, he focused on developing iOS and Android app versions of the popular desktop program. In 2005, eBay acquired Skype for what was then a laughably large amount: $2.6 Billion. Even though this service is largely forgotten today, it was so successful that I remember the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) at one point banning Skype altogether to protect the local phone companies. This led to the offering of SkypeOut: you could call a mobile phone from your Skype account and receive calls from cellular networks as well, all for greatly cheaper rates. Private investors wanted in on the action as they saw that there was promise of it eventually becoming a paid service. Skype required at least two people to use it (obviously), hence the form of advertising it relied on most was free – word of mouth. Originally named “Sky Peer to Peer”, it got shortened to Skyper for a little while, before eventually losing the final “r” as well. In fact, that information was conveyed in the name itself. Firstly, it was free, and second, it was peer-to-peer, meaning no centralized server was involved. There were two things that made Skype special. ![]() ![]() An instant success at launch, Skype had a million registered users in August of 2003. One of the original co-founders had claimed that one day people would say “I’ll Skype you” instead of “I’ll call you” – and he was right! At least for a little while. Long before it was acquired by large publicly owned tech corporations, Skype was lauched by a Swedish duo. Why, then, is one of these apps installed on nearly every device today and the other one shelved in the annals of internet history? To understand this better, we can take a look at how these services came to be and what each did right and wrong. Eric Yuan, the founder of Zoom, launched the service in 2013, a good decade after the behemoth Skype’s release. If you’re at home (which you should be), chances are you’ve used Zoom. When was the last time you heard the phrase, “I’ll Skype you later tonight?” ![]()
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