A beta version was launched nearly a year ago. Skype recently said that the free software has been downloaded about 10 million times.
To the user, Skype works a lot like instant messaging. On your screen, you see a box that lists which buddies — fellow Skype users — are also on the system. To make a connection, both you and the other person have to have the Skype software and be logged in at the same time. Then you click and make a call, talking either through a headset or using the PC's microphone and speakers. You can't call to a traditional phone.
That's what Skype is. More interesting is what it's not. Skype is not a company in any 20th-century sense of the word. It's an entity that could only happen in this era of the Internet and globalization.
Skype has barely any staff and has no real headquarters. It has no infrastructure whatsoever but is serving millions in 170 countries and could, with the same lack of infrastructure, scale that up to billions. It doesn't seem to have a PR department, either: I couldn't get hold of anyone who could put me in touch with Zennstrom and Friis.
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