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 today, 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. And in the surest sign of success, the brand name has been turned into a verb – a rare distinction shared by the likes of Xerox and Google. In another sign of success, Skype has spawned competitors with a host of similar technologies, most importantly Apple’s FaceTime. But revolutionary as Skype’s technology may seem, it didn’t start completely from scratch but built on existing communication technologies. “We already had cheap international calling using the Internet,” said Martin Geddes, a leading Britain-based telecommunications consultant. “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 launched in late August 2003 by two Scandinavian technology entrepreneurs, Niklas Zennstroem of Sweden and Janus Friis of Denmark, who expanded on existing peer-to-peer networking technologies. Skype, which allows its online users to make high-quality calls to each other anywhere in the world for free, quickly took off, bringing the world closer together in an age when globalisation and intercontinental travel pulled more families apart than at perhaps any other time in history. “I’m touched by the ways people use Skype, from an active duty soldier meeting his baby girl for the first time… to just the simple, extraordinarily ordinary instances,” said Elisa Steele, Skype chief marketing officer.
These simple instances, she said, include “a mum and daughter being able to see and talk to one another in a way that feels like they’re just sitting across the kitchen table from each other. Our greatest achievement lies in these moments.” While Skype helps people to stay in touch with those they already know, it also enables new connections to be formed. —AFP
Internet messaging service Skype, which celebrates its 10th anniversary today, 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. And in the surest sign of success, the brand name has been turned into a verb – a rare distinction shared by the likes of Xerox and Google. In another sign of success, Skype has spawned competitors with a host of similar technologies, most importantly Apple’s FaceTime. But revolutionary as Skype’s technology may seem, it didn’t start completely from scratch but built on existing communication technologies. “We already had cheap international calling using the Internet,” said Martin Geddes, a leading Britain-based telecommunications consultant. “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 launched in late August 2003 by two Scandinavian technology entrepreneurs, Niklas Zennstroem of Sweden and Janus Friis of Denmark, who expanded on existing peer-to-peer networking technologies. Skype, which allows its online users to make high-quality calls to each other anywhere in the world for free, quickly took off, bringing the world closer together in an age when globalisation and intercontinental travel pulled more families apart than at perhaps any other time in history. “I’m touched by the ways people use Skype, from an active duty soldier meeting his baby girl for the first time… to just the simple, extraordinarily ordinary instances,” said Elisa Steele, Skype chief marketing officer.
These simple instances, she said, include “a mum and daughter being able to see and talk to one another in a way that feels like they’re just sitting across the kitchen table from each other. Our greatest achievement lies in these moments.” While Skype helps people to stay in touch with those they already know, it also enables new connections to be formed. —AFP
