Call via the Internet to a regular cell phone or landline phone? Easily. Contact another user on the network by establishing direct audiovisual contact? Even easier! VoIP and softphones are rapidly conquering markets around the world, and at the forefront of this “attack” is a program whose name is familiar to everyone - Skype. That's what we'll talk about today.

Before Skype, or an excursion into history

Many science fiction writers of the 19th and 20th centuries predicted that sooner or later humanity would invent a kind of videophone, thanks to which the interlocutor could not only be heard, but also seen. Some especially gifted individuals (Tesla, for example) started talking about this back at a time when even an ordinary telephone was a novelty.

In fact, humanity managed to invent such a thing sooner rather than later. Judge for yourself: just 15 years ago it was difficult to imagine that very soon we would have at our disposal compact and powerful Cell Phones, from which you can easily make a video call to anywhere in the world (there is nothing to say about the fact that from them you can also simply go online, listen to music, read, watch movies, and so on).

It is worth noting that attempts to invent a videophone as an independent device is a topic worthy of a separate story. For example, back in 1964, AT&T managed to install the first public video telephone booths in New York, Washington and Chicago. Devices bearing the name Picturephone Mod I were also installed with fanfare at the headquarters of large companies. It was planned that the innovation would be a resounding success, and then general recognition would follow. By the way, the devices used 3 pairs telephone wires: one for audio transmission and two (1 MHz bandwidth) for video transmission in each direction. The image was updated every 2 seconds. An additional PBX was used for video switching. But the public did not appreciate all these efforts - a call from New York to Washington cost $16 for 3 minutes, and to Chicago - $27, which scared off even the most notorious geeks of that time. As a result, the booths were dismantled in 1968.

However, we digress. Our story today is not about video payphones at all, but about the idea of ​​transmitting voice and image over the Internet, which appeared almost before the invention of computer networks themselves.

As paradoxical as it may sound, until a certain period of time, telephone networks and data networks existed independently of each other. The fact is that the technology and channels of those years simply could not cope with both at the same time. Scientists have been struggling to solve this problem since the 60s, but the first noticeable progress was made only in the 80s, when the ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) was created - a network that supported services for transmitting voice, data, video and text. But these were only the first steps, and the real results and the actual “birthday” of Voice over IP (VoIP) and video conferencing came already in the 90s.
The first sign to break the dam of “network silence” was the Internet Phone program, created by the Israelis from the VocalTec company. Internet Phone was released in early 1995 and, in fact, was a banal IM + softphone with which you could make voice calls to other PCs. But what seems banal now, then evoked emotions like “omigod, it's magic!!11”. And this is despite the fact that this miracle worked in half-duplex mode, that is, unilaterally, as when talking on a walkie-talkie ( which is not surprising - the founders of VocalTec got the idea for the program while serving in the army, looking at packet voice radio).

Neither the above, nor the fact that the quality of communication usually left much to be desired, could stand in the way of progress - in a few weeks, thousands of people downloaded Internet Phone and immediately began to actively use it. This was the go-ahead - it became obvious that the public’s interest was great, and the prospects for Internet telephony were enormous. The market was immediately flooded with all sorts of clones of the Israeli program, and by the end of 1995, DigiPhone software appeared on sale, which allowed you to listen and talk at the same time.

Meanwhile, in the area of ​​software for transmitting video over the Internet, things were also going well. In the early 90s, craftsmen from Cornell University wrote the CU-SeeMe program, originally intended for Macs, and then released for Windows. By the way, it was with the help of CU-SeeMe in 1994 during the flight of NASA's Endeavor shuttle transmitted his image to Earth.

Interest in VoIP technologies, that is, the transmission of speech signals via the Internet or other IP networks, grew rapidly, and already in 1996, issues of standardization and the adoption of standards became ripe. The International Telecommunication Union, an international organization that sets recommendations in the field of telecommunications and radio, as well as regulating the international use of radio frequencies, adopted recommendations for the H.323 standard, which was based on almost 50 other standards. Thus, the first standard was adopted for multimedia communication using packet-based networks that do not guarantee quality of service. At the same time, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), an open international community of designers, scientists, network operators and providers, which develops Internet protocols and architecture, developed the Realtime Transport Protocol (RTP), which is used in H.323.

Further development of VoIP proceeded as follows:

• 1996 was also marked by the conclusion of an agreement between VocalTec and the giant Dialogic. The goal of their joint project was to create the first specialized telephone gateway for IP telephony, called VocalTec Telephone Gateway (VTG).
• 1997 gave the world the opportunity to make calls not only from PC to PC, but also from PC to phone and vice versa, as well as from phone to phone.
• 1999 was marked by the first specification of the open standard SIP (Session Initiation Protocols), which was developed by the guys from the IETF since 1996, and which will be discussed below. H.323 has a competitor, which, as time will tell, will very quickly deal with its predecessor.

This is how things quietly approached the new millennium, and therefore the creation of Skype.

Skype

Skype is written by European progers, namely Estonians Ahti Heinla, Priit Kasesalu and Jaan Tallinn. These names may surprise some, because in recent years completely different people have been often called the creators of Skype - Dane Janus Friis and Swede Niklas Zennstrom. The thing is that both the first and second are true.
It is possible that the names of the three Estonian developers not only caused surprise, but also seemed vaguely familiar to some readers. If you showed up, we hasten to please you - you have an excellent memory. The fact is that in the early 2000s, these guys were developing the unforgettable P2P file-sharing network KaZaA, thanks to which they gained fame. The work on Skype, which gentlemen IT journalists unfairly credit to Friis and Zennström, respectively, happened later.

“Who are Zennström and Friis?” - you ask. Of course, it was no coincidence that they also appeared in this story - this couple was directly related to the development and development of both projects (both KaZaA and Skype), and some of their “exploits” literally overshadowed the rest of the team. However, calling them “the creators of Skype” is a gross exaggeration, since these two are primarily businessmen and investors, but not developers. We will tell you more about Friis, Zennström and their role in Skype separately below, but for now let’s return to the program itself.

Active work on Skype began in 2002 after solid investments from the Draper Investment Company, and the software was released quite quickly: the domain names Skype.com and Skype.net were registered in April, and the public saw the first beta release of the program already in August 2003. By the way, random interesting fact– during development, the program was called Skyper (short for “Sky peer-to-peer”), and only closer to completion of work it was renamed Skype, because Domain name Skyper was already busy.

So, what distinguished Skype from many other similar programs, of which there were a little more released at that time? Unlike other software designed for IP telephony, Skype used and still uses a P2P architecture to operate, which is not at all surprising if you remember the track record of its creators. In fact, this is one of its main advantages: all voice traffic goes through network nodes, which are the users themselves (and the more users use the system, the better it works). Skype can also route calls through the computers of other users, which allows users behind a NAT or firewall to connect to each other (creating an increased load on the channels of other users).

By the time Skype entered the IP telephony market, almost the entire market was occupied by software and hardware operating on the basis of the SIP standard, which it’s time to talk about in more detail.

Unlike Skype's secretive protocol, SIP is completely open to developers, well designed, and easy to implement in hardware. The HTTP message protocol was taken as a model for SIP. SIP messages, like HTTP requests, are transmitted over the Internet in text form, and their formats partially coincide. This greatly simplifies the development and debugging of programs that support SIP, and quite likely contributed to the growth of its popularity. Just like Skype, SIP does not have a centralized server - there are many servers; in fact, anyone can acquire one, and they all interact with each other. The tasks of the protocol include only establishing and coordinating communication, and it is not at all necessary that this communication be voice - it can be any other data stream (video, multimedia, interactive service).

SIP is designed to work in local networks and on good Internet channels.

Skype is the exact opposite of SIP, although some evidence indicates that the Skype protocol is based on a modified SIP. Be that as it may, there are more than enough differences: Skype is a closed protocol, and due to its P2P structure, it uses forced encryption (data is encrypted using AES-256, for the transfer of the key of which, in turn, a 1024-bit RSA key is used . Public keys users are certified by the central Skype server upon login using 1536- or 2048-bit RSA certificates), and it is much better suited to extreme conditions than SIP. The phrase “I’m at the door, and he’s at the window” most accurately reflects Skype’s behavior pattern - close the usual range of UDP protocol ports for it, and it will switch to free TCP ports, and if it’s really pressed, Skype is always ready to use an HTTP proxy. Some experts argue that the only way to completely block Skype is to analyze the contents of all packets that Skype, do not forget, encrypts. The program bypasses simpler methods.

All of the above has been seriously straining the intelligence services of almost all countries of the world for many years - how can it be that something cannot be intercepted and deciphered, this is definitely a mess! However, Switzerland, Australia, Austria, Germany and Russia have already hinted that they still have solutions for listening to Skype in their arsenal.

Skype is also criticized by many security experts, and even hackers. Back in 2007, in the 100th issue of ][ Chris Kaspersky devoted an extensive article to this issue entitled “Skype: The Hidden Threat.” In the article, Chris writes the following: “Skype is a black box with a multi-level encryption system, stuffed with anti-debugging techniques for the executable file, reading confidential information from the computer and transmitting it to the Network via a closed protocol. The latter bypasses firewalls and severely masks its traffic, preventing it from being blocked. All this turns Skype into an ideal carrier of viruses, worms and drones that create their own distributed networks within the Skype network.”

But Skype managed to conquer a wide audience not due to encryption and resourcefulness, but due to two very important things: simplicity and excellent sound quality.

Starting from the very first version, released in the fall of 2003, Skype supported 10 languages ​​and had the simplest possible interface, unlike other IM, which was initially designed specifically for voice communication. It also played a role that the entire procedure for installing the program and registering a new user was many times simpler than that of competitors. As for codecs, Skype uses SVOPC (16 kHz), AMR-WB (16 kHz), G.729 (8 kHz) and G.711 (ILBC and ISAC were also used previously), which provides a sufficient connection speed (30-60 Kbps) /c) allows you to get sound comparable in quality to regular telephone communication.

Having taken off right off the bat in 2003, Skype has not stopped developing for a minute. With each new version More and more new functions and “conveniences” appeared. List all these answering machines, online numbers, conferences, services for sending SMS and so on does not make sense, since the article is still not called “Skype services for dummies” :). Instead, I would like to note something else - the company was developing confidently, despite the fact that in 2005 Friis and Zennström sold their brainchild, which had already gained enormous popularity (74.7 million accounts and an average of 10.8 million users on the network), eBay for the tidy sum of several billion dead presidents. The fact that this had a negative impact on the development of Skype is clearly demonstrated by numbers and facts:

• Today there are already more than 560 million accounts on Skype;
• There are versions of Skype for almost every platform known to mankind, including mobile;
• The company provides a full range of VoIP services;
• Skype produces and sells various gadgets from headsets and webcams to full-fledged Skype backgrounds - phones that can work with both the regular telephone network and Skype.

We shared an orange, or patent trolling

Now, after covering all sorts of technological aspects of Skype, we can talk about more fun things - for dessert we have the real “scandals, intrigues, investigations”.

As promised, let's return to the personalities of Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis and take a closer look at them. Zennström is a graduate of Uppsala University with a bachelor's degree in business administration and a master's degree in physics. Friis, on the contrary, cannot boast of a “tower”, since at one time he dropped out of school and went to work in technical support of a local provider.
It so happened that at the very beginning of their life and career path, these two got a job at the Swedish telecommunications company Tele2, where fate brought them together in 1996.

After working side by side for several years, Zennström and Friis got along so well that already in 2000 they decided to quit and start their own business, which became the file-sharing network KaZaA. In fact, to develop it, Friis and Zennström moved to Amsterdam, hired a team of programmers, and chose to remain in management positions.

However, an incident arose with “Kaza” - before the brainchild of Friis and Zennström had time to gain momentum, active persecution began against peer-to-peer networks. Just then the legendary Napster closed, and a holy place, as you know, is never empty - all illegal content flowed to other networks, one of which was KaZaA. Copywriters immediately began to besiege our unfortunate businessmen, wanting to drown them in lawsuits, and the newly minted startups did not like this state of affairs at all. Zennström and Friis were forced to classify the location of the company's offices and literally go on the run, hiding from the subpoenas that poured in as if from a cornucopia.

When it became finally clear that the saying “time heals” this situation does not spread, and is only getting worse, it was decided to get rid of KaZaA. A strange deal was carried out, during which KaZaA was transferred to the Australian company Sharman Networks, registered on the Pacific island of Vanuatu. However, something was not included in this deal then, something very important - the rights and patents for the peer-to-peer technology that was used in KaZaA. These rights remained in the hands of Zennström and Friis, or rather their new company Joltid, generally registered in the British Virgin Islands.

You probably already understand that all these details are given here for a reason. The fact is that later it was this technology that was used to create Skype.

By the way, if we talk about the role of Friis and Zennsterm in the creation of Skype, then everything here was already familiar to us - hired programmers (the same Estonians who worked on KaZaA) and two inseparable startupers as the founders of the project. Although, in fairness, it should be noted here that Zennström was loyal to Skype and remained as CEO until 2007, that is, for another two years after the company was sold to eBay.

So, eBay. As mentioned above, in 2005, just two years after its creation, Skype was sold to eBay for a fabulous sum - $ 2.6 billion, plus another 1.5 billion in a few years if Skype's financial performance was good (this was the largest eBay acquisition in the entire history of the auction). Both Friis and Zennström then became billionaires overnight and, it would seem, could calmly enjoy life, start and promote other projects, invest and simply spend those same billions. But it was not there.

Having waited four long years after the deal was completed and managed to launch the startup Joost during this time, the prudent couple decided that they would stop watching the development of Skype from the sidelines. And the development, by the way, was obvious: the number of users grew from 53 to more than 400 million, Skype’s international traffic in 2008 amounted to a record 33 billion minutes, but all this did not bring the desired money to eBay. And since profits from Skype amounted to much more modest amounts than originally planned, in 2009 the largest auction on the planet decided to get rid of the acquisition, declaring that it intended to again spin off Skype into a separate company and put its shares on the stock exchange. This message caused Friis and Zennström to suddenly become active.

Few people initially understood why eBay bought Skype in the first place (they sounded too unconvincing official statements: “for the convenience of communication between auction users”), but only in 2009 did the full comedy of the situation reach the general public. It turned out that by acquiring Skype itself, eBay managed to leave the rights and patents for the ever-memorable key technology in the hands of its previous owners. Yes, yes, Friis and Zennström represented by Joltid. And the owners, having learned about the upcoming listing of Skype on the stock exchange, developed vigorous activity, beginning to return what they sold back. Thus, the New York Times, for example, leaked a rumor that the former owners of Skype had already squandered their billions and were now forced to communicate with private investors, trying to find the missing part of the amount to complete a “reverse” transaction.

Moreover, savvy businessmen immediately fired a “warning shot” - since eBay had been working with Joltid under a license all this time, Friis and Zennström filed a corresponding lawsuit, intending to revoke this license in the UK. To start.

Mutual blackmail and attacks on each other lasted for almost six months. During this time, eBay, as if in response to an offer from Zennström and Friis to buy out their brainchild, managed to sell 65% of Skype shares to a group of investors Andreessen Horowitz for $2 billion. Resourceful businessmen immediately sued again, this time against the new owners of Skype, accusing them of violating patents and demanding $75 million for each day of “illegal” operation of the service. The auction, which Friis and Zennström also did not leave alone (obviously, eBay still had a 35% stake!), filed a countersuit against Joltid in order to prohibit the company from using the technology underlying Skype. Realizing that they would probably not be able to win the case, eBay representatives, just in case, announced their readiness to rewrite Skype from scratch if necessary.

The end of this whole circus came quite recently, in November 2009. Surprisingly, the situation was resolved peacefully. eBay, which had previously categorically refused to pay anything to the ex-owners of Skype, eventually agreed to the deal. Zennström and Friis were not left out in the cold; they not only regained seats on the board of directors, but also snatched a 14% stake in Skype. The whole point of the situation is that they did not have to fork out money - eBay agreed to their terms in exchange for dropping claims and licensing their intellectual property.

We will, of course, never know what Zennström and Friis's original plan was, or whether it even existed. It is quite possible that they imagined “returning to Skype” a little differently, so to speak, in a more rosy light. Perhaps Joltid had the rights up his sleeve for a more opportune occasion, and eBay's decision to get rid of Skype forced things into gear. On the other hand, it may turn out that Friis and Zennström were not planning anything criminal at all, although it is very difficult to believe that the rights to the key technology remained with them “accidentally”, and the Joltid company was opened in an offshore zone by pure chance.

After the above, it would be reasonable to ask the question: “what will happen to Skype next?”, because although the division is over, it cannot be said that everything is going completely cloudless. No, no, they will try to ban the softphone in some country or sue the company (lately telecommunications and cellular operators in a number of countries, including Russia, have been very bad at Skype). However, this is connected not so much with Skype itself, but with VoIP telephony in general - in the latter, OPSoS and Co., due to paranoia, are often seen as a competitor, pest and enemy number one.

Perhaps, regarding the future of Skype, the following can be said for sure: one of the most popular and successful VoIP services, which is used by several hundred million people, cannot just disappear into oblivion, no matter what happens. And if the founding fathers of this software also include two such cunning and persistent types as Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, Skype not only will not disappear, but will most likely find better ways to monetize and increase profits.

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

In March, technology investor and commentator Oi Malik tweeted that Skype was once the "standard of 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 it is partly related to software updates. Of course, there are other factors that force many “Skypers” to look for new platforms for communication.

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

Photo: Bloomberg. Steve Ballmer

The last time Microsoft released data on the number of Skype users was in 2016. At that time, about 300 million people used the application. Some analysts believe this figure has remained unchanged since then. Two ex-Microsoft employees, who wished to remain anonymous, claim that at the end of 2017, this number in user statistics remained the same.

Skype was founded in 2003 by a pair of Scandinavian entrepreneurs. The app freed people from the tyranny of phone companies by offering cheap calls abroad. Most used the service for free, and Skype money came from 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 market personal computers, the company's former CEO Steve Ballmer decided to acquire Skype. He was attracted by the great potential of this online brand and paid 40% more than the appraised value for it.

“It was the most recognizable brand at the time. This was an opportunity for Microsoft to be part of something great,” said Laurie Wright, Skype executive.

Since the acquisition, Skype has always been positioned as a tool for making cheap or free international calls. Former Skype CFO Bill Kofod remembers border officials in other countries constantly telling him, “I can call my grandma with Skype!” “Skype is a legendary brand,” he says.

At first, Microsoft management promised to keep Skype independent from its corporate communications service Lync. However, two years later the integration of platforms began, resulting in Skype for Business, which became part of Microsoft package Office.

Today Microsoft has literally replaced the corporate application with an application. telephone system, adding elements of messenger, AI and social network. Teams, Microsoft's version of Slack, with Skype for Business. LinkedIn, another acquisition Microsoft company, will provide “skypers” with professional profiles of the people they plan to call. In addition, Skype can now translate calls into twelve languages.

As evidence of the effectiveness of the new strategy, Microsoft cites the fact that Skype for Business clients include industrial giant General Electric, consulting company Accenture and the world's leading banks. Forrester analysts conducted a survey among more than 6 thousand IT employees of companies and found that 28% of them prefer Skype for Business for conference calls and only 21% use competing Cisco products for this.

Atkins, an architectural, engineering, construction and consulting services company, says 18,500 employees use Skype for calls, conferences and projects. “We did a full competitor analysis, but we trusted Microsoft's vision. Very rarely do we encounter any problems,” says Nick Ledger, collaboration manager at Atkins.

However, Microsoft paid a high price by putting the interests of corporations before the interests of users. If for the former the most important thing is the security of the service, its complexity and multi-component nature, then for the latter it is simplicity and convenience. As a result, the complexity of enterprise software has replaced the simplicity that users value. Although Microsoft retains two separate applications - for business customers and consumers - both are based on the same technology, which is now based on the needs of corporate employees.

Skype has tried to accommodate everyone and has "always been outperformed by the competition," says Matthew Culnine, a user experience and content strategy expert at The Open University in the UK.

Frequent app updates don't help either. After 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 countless retweets caught the attention of the Skype team: “Brian, we're sorry for your inconvenience. We'd love to hear more criticism. We'll see if we can help you with anything."

Creative Strategies analyst Carolina Milanesi shared, “We all loved Skype for what it was—simple and no frills. Now he’s not the same.” She used to often use paid subscription Skype to call your mom in Italy. Then her mother bought an iPad and they've been talking on Facetime ever since.

While focusing on the corporate market, Microsoft also did not pay attention to the growing 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. Messenger now has 1.5 billion users, and its features include key Skype capabilities.

Over the ten years of its existence, Skype has been a unique program for free voice communication via the Internet, based on peer-to-peer technology and allowing you not to worry about interception of calls, has turned into one of the many Microsoft services, supervised by all self-respecting intelligence agencies in the world. How could this happen? The usual thing is money.

KaZaA

The real story of Skype began in 2000, when two employees of the Swedish telecommunications company Tele2 - Swede Niklas Zennström with an engineering and business education and Danish Janus Friis, who did not even have a completed secondary education - were brought in to work on the entertainment and news portal Everyday.com , the likes of which were just then becoming fashionable. Probably to save money, the management of the Estonian branch of Tele2 placed an advertisement in the local newspaper for the recruitment of qualified programmers with a salary of about $300 per day.

Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis.

Three classmates responded to the ad: Jaan Tallinn, Ahti Heinla and Priit Kazesalu. Friends from FIDO, at the end of the Soviet era they founded a small company BlueMoon Interactive and even developed a fairly successful computer game Kosmonaut. In 1989, it became the first Estonian game to be sold abroad, and brought them good money for those times. But by 2000, the company was already on the verge of bankruptcy, so in a couple of days the friends learned simple PHP basics and were successfully hired by Tele2. Another Estonian, Toivo Annus, was appointed to lead the Everyday.com development team.

The Everyday.com portal was launched as soon as possible, but turned out to be commercially unsuccessful. Zennström and Friis quit Tele2 and moved to Amsterdam, where they began to think about creating their own business. The wild popularity of the file-sharing service Napster, which had already begun to be pursued in the United States by indignant members of the band Metallica, gave them the idea of ​​​​creating something similar, but in collaboration with representatives of the recording and film industries. An already proven team of Estonian programmers was involved in the development of such a network, and in September 2000 the KaZaA program was born in Tallinn.

Ahti Heinla, Toivo Annus and Jaan Tallinn.

Unlike Napster, whose main problem was the presence of a central server where data about connected computers and accessible files was stored, KaZaA did not require intermediate servers at all. As a result, almost immediately after its appearance, the KaZaA client became the most downloaded program on the Internet.

However, Zennström and Friis failed to reach an agreement with the labels, which viewed KaZaA as just another intermediary of “pirates,” and soon armies of American lawyers began hunting for the newly minted businessmen. The Swedes went on the run from the plaintiffs, constantly changing “appearances and passwords,” and the entire team began intensively encrypting correspondence and regularly getting rid of “compromising” information. At the same time, the Estonian government generally initially rejected the Americans’ request to interrogate the BlueMoon team regarding their disclosure of KaZaA’s trade secrets. Subsequently, however, they were interrogated in the presence of American lawyers, but no charges were brought against the Estonians.

As a result, at the end of 2001, KaZaA was sold to the Australian company Sharman Networks, registered in Vanuatu, and a few years later, already in 2006, Zennström and Friis paid about $100 million from their own funds as part of the settlement of copyright disputes with four major labels - Universal Music , Sony BMG, EMI and Warner Music, as well as several others.

Skype: beginning

Meanwhile, the most important part of KaZaA’s intellectual property—patents for the Global Index peer-to-peer technology—remained in the hands of enterprising Swedes: specifically for this purpose, they registered the Joltid company in the offshore zone of the British Virgin Islands, to which all rights were transferred. And they did it just in time, because now the labels could sue Sharman Networks until they were blue in the face, but they could not acquire the rights to the peer-to-peer technology itself and ban its use as patent owners.

As a matter of fact, even then Zennström and Friis had the idea of ​​​​creating an application that could provide voice communication between any computers connected to the Internet, and it would be completely free. The partners had almost ready-made Global Index P2P technology in their hands, only instead of files it had to be configured to transmit digitized voice data.

Of course, an Estonian team of programmers familiar to us joined the project, and the city of Tallinn became the actual headquarters of Skype for a long time. In the spring of 2003, the alpha version of the new application was ready, and it was sent to 20 testers. The name was made up of the words “sky” (“sky”) and “peer” (“equal”, already in the meaning of a “peer” node) and initially looked like “Skyper”, but the domain name skyper.com was taken, so the partners decided to simply discard the last letter.

At first, reviews of Skype were skeptical, primarily due to the mediocre sound quality, but the fact that this application allowed you to communicate for free with people on the other side of the world made you look at it from a completely different perspective. The famous American venture capitalist William Draper decided to invest in the people who made KaZaA, and the millions he invested returned to him a thousand times larger.

The first full-fledged version of Skype was released on August 29, 2003, and the company of the same name was registered in Luxembourg, a country that does not welcome the interference of foreign jurisdictions in the activities of its legal entities. And this was very reasonable, because the “Robin Hoods” of file sharing have now become the worst enemies of all telecommunications companies in the world. On the first day, 10,000 people downloaded Skype.

Skype: the age of eBay

After the experience with KaZaA, Skype was initially created as a product protected from interception: all conversations were necessarily encrypted, and computers connected to the network had to act as server-supernodes to one degree or another. The only central element of the network required is a server containing user accounts and backup copies of their contact lists, containing no other information. Skype easily bypassed firewalls, skillfully masked its traffic, leaked through any available ports and left no trace of its presence on the Internet.

As a result, for some time it became a favorite tool for criminals of all stripes, and with the opening of paid services (for example, calls to SkypeOut phones), they even began to use it for money laundering. It is not surprising that law enforcement agencies and intelligence agencies of all countries, as well as representatives of telecommunications companies, bombarded Skype's Luxembourg and London offices with a wide variety of angry demands, which the company's lawyers simply threw in the trash without reading them.

This was possible not only thanks to the Luxembourg “registration” of the company, but also due to the fact that Zennström and Friis now paid the closest attention to the legal support of the business: the experience of KaZaA forced them to make every effort to ensure that the next enterprise was one hundred percent legal. In particular, Skype was never registered as a telecom operator; instead, the firm was considered an “electronic information provider”, like, for example, an enterprise providing email services.

Until 2005, Skype bore little resemblance to a typical high-tech business: price lists for paid services were compiled without relying on any marketing research, the staff was recruited based on the results of simple tests, and the size of the salary and even the terms of its payment were not prescribed anywhere. None of the three Skype offices - in Tallinn, Luxembourg and London - had even signs, and the offices themselves were impossible to find for a random person.

At the same time, the number of lawsuits against Skype was constantly growing, while Yahoo!, AOL, Microsoft and Google announced their intention to open similar services of their own in the near future. In the summer of 2005, Zennström and Friis began negotiations with eBay, and in September it was announced that Skype had been sold to this largest Internet auction for $2.6 billion: this became eBay's most impressive purchase in history. The partners woke up as billionaires, and the Estonian team of programmers received $42 million each. In addition, another 140 people in Tallinn and London had small shares in the company.

It is unlikely that eBay really understood that O they bought it, and most importantly, why. The cultural differences between the company's Estonian and American staff were so great that even corporate parties held in Pärnu shocked the Americans. eBay's hair stood on end when they saw a live telecast of the 2006 Skype party, where Zennström personally poured vodka for everyone, and guests splashed in the pool with their clothes on.

At the same time, Skype brought much less profit than headaches, and in 2009 eBay decided to spin it off into a separate company and put its shares on the stock exchange. And then the former owners Zennström and Friis appeared on the scene again with an offer to buy Skype back. Moreover, they had a well-known argument in their arsenal: all rights to patents still remained the property of the Joltid offshore, and eBay store used them under license. Meanwhile, eBay managed to sell 65% of Skype shares to the Andreessen Horowitz investment fund, as a result of which Joltid started litigation against two rivals, accusing them of illegally using other people's patents.

The situation was resolved by a settlement agreement with eBay, which ultimately received nothing but a waiver of prosecution by Joltid and licenses for their peer-to-peer technology. And already in 2011, Skype was bought by Microsoft for $8.5 billion.

Skype: the era of Microsoft

The acquisition of Skype was also the largest purchase in history for Microsoft, as well as for eBay. Zennström and Friis received impressive money for the second time for their most successful venture. For now, Skype is still an independent application, which is being developed by the Microsoft Skype division, with offices in Luxembourg, Tartu and Tallinn. But, knowing Microsoft, there is no doubt that in the future this application will become only part of the code of some larger branded product, and the name Skype itself will remain in the past.

And, most importantly, nothing remains of the former secrecy of the negotiations: according to former NSA employee Edward Snowden, US intelligence agencies got behind the scenes of Skype since using eBay, and to mask the technical and legal consequences of such actions, a secret Chess project was allegedly developed, which only a few people at eBay knew about. There is no doubt that this collaboration continues in the Microsoft era. In addition, now the communication technology itself has been changed in such a way that it is no longer possible to create supernodes on some individual computers within the network that meet purely technical requirements: all their functions have been transferred to Microsoft servers.

In turn, the user agreement now allows access to transmitted data both from Microsoft itself and from affiliated companies and Internet providers. The intelligence services of several states, including, of course, Russia, have already openly announced the availability of means to control Skype conversations.

Of the entire original Skype team, only one person continues to work on the system - Priit Kazesalu. Annus quit immediately after selling the system to eBay; Tallinn and Heinla lasted a couple more years. All of them are now very wealthy people who invest money in a variety of startups: Tallinn, for example, participates in the Lifeboat Foundation project to “save humanity” and owns the “personalized medical care” company MetaMed. Billionaires Zennström and Friis are enjoying life and are seen in acts of charity.

What is Skype? What is Skype and how to use it? Skype is one of the most popular programs for communicating on the Internet. https://site/ip-telefoniya/chto-takoe-skaip https://site/@@site-logo/logo.png

What is Skype? What is Skype and how to use it?

Skype is one of the most popular programs for communicating on the Internet.

What is Skype and how to use it?

Skype(read Skype) - this is simple computer program(already Russified), thanks to which you can call other Skype subscribers all over the world for free. Those. provides free encrypted voice and video communication over the Internet between computers (VoIP), as well as paid services for communication with regular and mobile subscribers telephone network. It is possible to organize a conference call (up to 25 subscribers, including the initiator), transfer text messages, files, showing your desktop, as well as video communication (currently, when using a standard client, up to two subscribers, and when using third-party plug-ins, their number is limited only by the channel bandwidth).

What is Skype? Skype offers many communication methods:

On Skype you will find many useful functions, thanks to which you will always be in touch with friends, family and colleagues, you will be able to share your thoughts and receive the necessary information.

Skype can be used on both your computer and mobile phone, so you can stay connected even on the go without changing your plans. Skype works on many mobile phones and devices such as the PlayStation® Portable (PSP®). There's also a huge selection of WiFi phones and cordless phones with Skype built-in.

To get started, try sending instant messages to someone on your contact list or open a group chat where several interlocutors can communicate at once. You can set up a conference call to discuss an upcoming meeting with friends, then use the Business Review Search™ to find the perfect place to host it.

Plus, you have great video calling capabilities. All you need is a webcam, which will allow you not only to use free video calls, but also to take photographs of yourself, so that you can later use these photos on Skype.

Skype is not intended for emergency calls

Skype is not a replacement regular phone, and cannot be used to call emergency services

Finding friends on Skype

If you use Microsoft Outlook®, Outlook Express® or email Yahoo!, you can import data from these applications into notebook Skype. If your friends don't have Skype yet, you can send them an invitation to download Skype, and then you can chat for free. Don't be surprised if they send you a bouquet of flowers and chocolate: these are your grateful friends. And you deserve it.

Know other MySpace users? Convince them to download Skype or MySpaceIM from Skype. Then add them to your Skype address book, and your circle of contacts will significantly expand. Just find the name of the person you need in MySpaceIM.

Adding a new friend to your address book is easy. You can also add contacts to Skype who don't already have Skype and call them on landlines and mobile phones at low rates anywhere in the world.

If in yours address book Microsoft Outlook® stores phone numbers, they will appear in your contacts list and you can easily dial them directly into Skype. To call landlines or mobile phones, you need Skype Credit or a monthly subscription.

How to use Skype at work?

Are you an individual entrepreneur? Or an employee of a multinational holding? No matter how small or impressive your company's staff may be, with Skype you can save time and money and, most importantly, always stay one step ahead of the competition.

Skype allows businesses to find their unique way of working, no matter what their goals are or where their employees are located.
Voice, chat, video conferencing and even calling and texting on mobile phones - you choose how best to convey information to your colleagues and clients. Whatever your company, download the business version of Skype and take the first step towards minimizing costs and increasing profitability.
And if stopping there is not your plan, especially for you is Skype Manager, a system for centralized management of the use of Skype throughout the entire enterprise.

Skype Manager simplifies and optimizes the exchange of business information. With just one simple online tool, you can connect colleagues to your network and give them access to the information you need. functionality Skype and save money at the same time with our very competitive rates.

Where does Skype work?

Skype works on the following operating systems Mac OS X, GNU/Linux, Windows, Windows Phone, iPhone, Windows Mobile, Google Android, PSP, Symbian.

Skype works on TV. Free video calling on big screen right in your living room - it's quite possible thanks to the latest developments companies such as LG, Panasonic and Samsung: the latest TV models from these manufacturers are designed to work with Skype in high definition mode.

Where can I download Skype?

Just follow the link for your operating system:

How to pay for Skype services?

You can deposit money into your Skype account using Diners, MasterCard or Visa. Using the payment system Moneybookers Allows you to use your credit card, debit card or bank account to securely purchase Skype products. You can also pay for purchases on Skype through the system WebMoney. SkypeOut services can also be paid through Yandex money. Thanks to the company PayByCash You can pay for purchases on Skype using the payment methods used in your country, so you can do without a credit card.

When and by whom was Skype created?

The creators of Skype are Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis.

The first Skype appeared in September 2003.

In October 2005, the company was purchased by eBay for approximately $2.6 billion (an additional $500 million was later paid), although the company's annual turnover was less than $100 million. In April 2009, eBay executives announced that in the first In the middle of 2010, Skype will be sold on the stock exchange, since the activities of this company do not fit well with the online auction business.

The company's headquarters are located in Luxembourg, with branches in London, Prague, San Jose and Tallinn.

Events

2003

• Foundation of the company

2005

• The company was bought by eBay for $2.7 billion

2007

• March: Skype 3.1 released, new features added, including Skype Find and Skype Prime. Skype 3.2 beta has also become available with new features that allow you to send money via PayPal to other users.
• August: Skype 3.5 for Windows was released, now there is support for video in the profile, as well as the ability to insert video into a chat; transfer a call to another user or group; auto repeat call.
• August 15: Skype 2.7.0.49 (beta) for Mac OS.
• August 16-17: “Black Tuesday”, as a result of a failure Skype did not work for more than a day.

2008

• January 30: Skype releases a version for Sony PSP.
• March 13: Skype 2.0 for Linux is released with video conferencing support.
• July 9: Skype 4.0 Beta was released, the fourth version has a new program interface.
• September 1: Skype closes SkypeCasts.
• September 12: at unlimited tariff Unlimited Europe for $5.95 now, in addition to calls to landlines in 21 European countries, includes Russian cities - St. Petersburg and Moscow.
• December 26: Skype releases version 1.0.0 for Nokia Nst-4 in system pack v1.0.0

2009

• February 3: Skype 4.0 (Windows) released.
• March 31: Skype released a version for the Apple iPhone.
• May 12: Skype stopped supporting conferencing.
• September 1: eBay announced the sale of a 65% stake in Skype to Andreessen Horowitz investor group for $2 billion.
• November 9: Skype releases toolbar for MS Outlook

2010

• January 19: Skype is another client of the Russian company SPIRIT in the field of IP telephony. The quality of sound transmission has been significantly improved.
• February 19: Skype ends support for Skype Lite (Skype for Java phones) and Skype for Windows Mobile.
• April 31: Skype released a version for the Apple iPad.
• August 9: Skype files for its first share issue. The company plans to raise $100 million during the placement of shares.
• September 2: Skype adds support for offline chat messages.
• October 5: Release of a full-fledged Skype client for Android.
• October 14: Skype 5.0 (Windows) was released, the fifth version has a new program interface and the ability to make group video calls has been added.
• December 22-23: Skype crashes worldwide.
• December 23, 18:20 Moscow time: Skype has been restored.

2011

2012

In the release of the program dated January 10, 2013, integration with mail client Outlook.

On January 29, 2013, Microsoft stopped supporting Windows Live Messenger, completely switching to the development of Skype.

The February 22, 2013 version of Windows 8 added file sharing functionality, allowing users to exchange documents via instant messaging.

Released on February 27, 2013, version 3.2 for the Android platform is adapted for 7-inch tablets.

On April 7, 2014, Microsoft announced the creation of Skype TX, a special Skype-based solution for television studios and radio stations. Since April 29, 2014, group video conferencing has become free. In September 2014, support for phones running the Symbian platform was discontinued.

What is Skype technology?

Unlike many other IP telephony programs, Skype uses a P2P architecture for data transmission. The Skype user directory is distributed across the computers of Skype network users, which allows the network to easily scale to very large sizes (in this moment more than 100 million users, 10-15 million online) without expensive infrastructure of centralized servers. In addition, Skype can route calls through other users' computers. This allows users behind a NAT or firewall to connect to each other, but creates additional load on the computers and channels of users connected directly to the Internet.

The only central element for Skype is the identity server, which stores user accounts and backups their contact lists. The central server is needed only to establish communication. Once the connection is established, the computers send voice data directly to each other (if there is a direct connection between them), or through a Skype intermediary (a supernode - a computer that has an external IP address and an open TCP port for Skype). In particular, if two computers located inside the same local network, have established a Skype connection with each other, then the connection with the Internet can be interrupted, and the conversation will continue until it is terminated by the users or there is some kind of communication failure within the local network.

Thanks to the codecs used by Skype (data compression algorithms) SVOPC (16 kHz), AMR-WB (16 kHz), G.729 (8 kHz) and G.711 (ILBC and ISAC were also previously used) and with sufficient Internet connection speed ( 30-60 kbit/s) in most cases the sound quality exceeds the quality of regular telephone communication.

When establishing a connection between PCs, the data is encrypted using AES-256, which in turn uses a 1024-bit RSA key to transmit the key.

The Skype VoIP protocol is closed and is used only by the original Skype software. Using the API, third-party programs can access its functions.

There are no cases of decryption and/or interception of data on Skype officially confirmed by the developer.

For stable use of video communication, an Internet connection speed of 200 kbps is required and a processor clock frequency of 1 GHz is desirable.

What is the history of Skype?

The first versions (versions 0.97, 0.98) of the program appeared in September-October 2003. The program simultaneously supported 10 languages ​​and had a simple, logical interface, initially adapted (unlike ICQ and MS-Messenger) for voice communication. During installation, Skype itself chose the Windows localization language and made login registration easier and faster than in competing programs. It was the ease of installation, learning and use of the program that quickly attracted the attention of a large number of users to it. In version 1.2, an answering machine (Voicemail) appeared for the first time, and starting from 1.3, any of its owners could leave messages to other users, even if they did not use this service. 1.2 also introduced the SkypeIn feature, which allows you to link your account Skype recording with a phone number.

Starting with version 1.4, it became possible to redirect calls to other Skype accounts, as well as to regular phones.

In version 2.0, for the first time, the possibility of video communication appeared, and in 2.5 - the ability to send SMS, organize Skypecasts (this technology has been officially disabled since September 1, 2008) and integration with Microsoft Outlook.

In version 3, a service (SkypeFind) appeared that allows users to create a list of companies and give a description of them. Nowadays it is filled to a large extent with spam.

Skype 3.5, version for Nokia Nst-4 The Skype client can be installed on a compatible phone or PDA, resulting in significant cost savings due to the low tariffs of the system. However, mobile operators do not want to lose excess profits and are slowing down the process in every possible way. T-Mobile is the largest provider cellular communication in Germany - stated that it would block Skype Internet telephony traffic on iPhone smartphones. It comes to the point that the lobby mobile operators is trying to ban Skype, and at the same time ICQ, in Russia.

What are Skype services? What are paid Skype services?

SkypeOut tariffs as of March 2006 in US dollars per minute of conversation SkypeOut Allows you to make outgoing calls to landlines and mobile phones in most countries of the world. Payment is per minute, differentiated. Calls to toll-free numbers (such as +1 800 in the US) are free, and even users who have not paid for the SkypeOut service can use them. Also, through SkypeOut, incoming Skype calls are made to a phone with the Skype Lite mobile application. 180 days after last call SkypeOut balance is running out. SkypeIn Allows you to receive phone calls from users of traditional telephone networks. In this case, the participant receives a telephone number in one of the following countries: Australia, Brazil, Germany, Denmark, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, Finland, Estonia, France, Great Britain, USA, Japan and Hong Kong (China). All incoming calls to this number will be sent to your Skype account, and if the account is positive, calls can be forwarded to any phone number. As a bonus to phone number Skype provides a free answering machine for the entire time you use the number. Skype Voicemail Free services Main article: Skypecast Screenshot of the Skype program with participation in Skypecast SkypeCast (from the English Skype - VoIP and broadcasting program) - broadcasting, sometimes the abbreviation “cast” is used) - a type of voice communication between a group of Skype program users (up to 150 people) . Outwardly similar to a conference call, however, unlike it, it is installed through a central server, as a result of which it does not place high demands on bandwidth channel of the user who initiated the conversation.

What are Skype gadgets and products?

Skype produces and sells various products for the Skype program. For example, the wireless phone RTX Dualphone 3088 for calls without a computer. The phone allows you to make and receive calls both via Skype and on a regular telephone network without a computer. Skype also releases Freetalk Wireless headsets - wireless headphones with a USB transmitter for wireless communication via Skype, equipment for video calls (Freetalk Buddy Pack) and webcams (Freetalk Connect 2).

Attempts to ban Skype

Telecommunications Commission and information technology The Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) is preparing recommendations to ban Skype in Russia. The interests of telecom operators participating in the RSPP are clear: thanks to the presence of Skype, millions of Internet users in Russia have the opportunity to bypass the existing high tariffs for international telephone communications. In addition, the initiators of the ban and the FSB claim that Skype is difficult to eavesdrop on due to its lack of connection to SORM.

In Belarus, all calls over the network must go through the state operator, and the use of other international networks, including Skype, is considered a violation of the law.

Europe's largest telecommunications company, Deutsche Telekom, said it would block Skype when people try to use it on an iPhone.

Access to Skype may be blocked by hardware. Verso Technologies and Cisco Systems have similar solutions. In particular, they are used by the largest Chinese provider China Telecom. Similarly, Skype is blocked in the UAE.

In response to attempts to ban Skype, its developers began to introduce traffic masking tools into the program to bypass VoIP blocking. In addition, Skype can work with proxy servers, VPN and Tor, which practically negates the effectiveness of its blocking.

Number of Skype users.

Year (end of year) Registered users Online users
2005 74 million 10.8 million

Comparison of Skype with other programs

	Skype	Net2Phone	MSN Messenger, ICQ, AIM, Yahoo Messenger	Other voice clients
Works with all firewalls No configuration required	V	X	X	X
Unlimited calls to other subscribers	V	V	V	Sometimes
Sound quality	Better, than by phone	Worse, than by phone	Worse, than by phone	Worse, than by phone
Security and encryption of connections	V	X	X	X
100% no ads	V	X	X	Sometimes

What is Skype

Skype is one of the most popular Internet telephony services in the world, as well as the messenger preferred by many.

Skype program was created by the company Skype Technologies SA V 2003. The history of creating a product for citizens of the post-Soviet space is noteworthy in that Estonians took part in writing the first program. And even now, according to information on Wikipedia, Skype has the majority of developers and almost half of the general department in its Estonian division. The company itself began as a national Swedish company, and positioned its program as VoiP- means of Internet telephony. After the acquisition of Skype Limited in 2011 by the corporation Microsoft, the company is a division of Microsoft with headquarters in Luxembourg,

What does the word Skype mean, which gives its name to the world famous program and company? It is useless to look in dictionaries for how this abbreviation is translated. Initially the application program was called Sky Peer-to-Peer, which can be translated as "sky peering". The name described the operating principle of the service, but it turned out to be too long, so they decided to shorten it to Skyper, the domain of the same name turned out to be busy, and we decided to use a truncated Skype.

First version 0.97 appeared in 2003, and since then the history of program versions is a history of innovation and world conquest. All versions of Skype - from the first to the latest - are the introduction of new technologies, targeting new types of devices and moving away from competitors. The number of users and market share of international calls is constantly growing.

What is Skype today? This free program, with which users can make calls to other subscribers and exchange messages and files with them. Subscribers can also subscribe to paid services: calls to landlines and mobile phones, sending SMS, access to Wi-Fi. What can be done on Skype for free today, yesterday was only possible with a subscription: for example, . At the time of writing this material, beta testing of a version with a built-in function has been launched instant transfer. The dictionaries available for voice calls and chats vary. For voice communication, these are currently English and Spanish; for messages, there are 44 languages ​​used in Microsoft Translator. In the near future, we can expect simultaneous translation into Russian of conversations and words in more than 40 languages ​​of the world.

Those who have this program prefer to use it both as a means of audio and video communication, and as a messenger, that is, via the Internet. Some argue that Skype is social network. But call it social network It is possible only with a very big stretch. Here, information about your posts is available only to a certain circle of users included in the correspondence, and the publicly available information, and even then only to your contacts, is how old you are on your birthday, a small photo and status. Still, Skype is a “regular” communication service, the main goal of which is to provide high-quality communication.

The application is so popular that even the uninitiated have many questions about it. We answer FAQ- FAQ.

What is Skype?

In what year did the application appear?

In 2003. This is both the founding date of the company and the creation of the first version.

Who owns the program?

After the 2011 deal, Skype became part of Microsoft Corporation

How many users around the world use Skype?

These data vary depending on the source. Usually operate with numbers "more than 300 million", and here is the wiki data - 660 million. We don’t know whether Wikipedia evaluates Skype correctly, but the fact that the number of users is huge is confirmed by official “modest” data, and reviews of the service are mostly good.

What does it mean that Skype uses VoiP?

This means that IP networks (one of which is the Internet) are used to connect subscribers. What the program does with them is another question. Skype sets the algorithm for using these networks and many other parameters.

Where is the complete archive of program versions stored?

IN open access The official website does not store those versions that are no longer supported or that do not correspond to the level of technology used. To have access to them and be able to run them, you need to contact special repositories or specialists interested in the topic. They will help you decide what versions are available for your device if it is outdated, and what a particular product is needed for.

What does the Skype logo look like?

Skype is a trademark owned by Skype/Microsoft and is protected by copyright:

Therefore, the trademark sign is integrated into the logo tm / tm:

Please note: if an adapted spelling of the word “Skype” is possible in the text, then in the logo the word can only be used as it is written in English.

We hope this article allowed you to understand why Skype is needed, what it is and where it came from.

Now you need and - welcome to the world of limitless communication!

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