We all use the Skype a lot. It is amazing as we can see the person we are chatting with. Suppose you have some loved one in another country. With the help of Skype you can easily chat with the person and can also see him or her while you chat. It gives a feel that you are with the person although you are miles apart. Thanks to technology that we can enjoy this amazing facility. We will now discuss about history of Skype in details. This will help you to understand how the concept started and became so popular worldwide.

The Beginnings

Skype was first stated in the year 2003. The developers of the Skype were Estonian. The name of these developers was Ahti Heinla, Jaan Tallinn, Janus Friis, Niklas Zennström and Priit Kasesalu. The Skype was slowly evolved and it was made into a platform where six hundred million users can login. The concept of Skype was later bought by Microsoft. The Microsoft bought Skype in 2011. It was bought for eight and a half billion dollars. This was an amazing chatting tool that took the world by storm.

The Skype would allow the users to chat using microphones and even webcam. It could also be used via phone calls. Many users still use Skype for instant messaging. The experts do belive that Skype can soon take over the traditional calling methods. Calls to other Skype accounts are free. However, call to landline and cell phones using Skype are charged. However, the rates are much lower than the normal call charges. The Skype became more popular as it would allow file transfers. The Skype can also help in video conferencing.

The Silent Google Voice

As Skype became so popular some competitors have tried to beat it. Google came up with google voice. Another concept that was developed is    Linphone. However, both these concepts failed to beat the popularity of Skype. The Microsoft has made a Skype division in the company to handle issues related to the Skype. The head office of the Skype division is located in Luxembourg. The development team is mostly situated in Estonia. Skype is a client server system. It is like a hybrid peer to peer system. The Skype technology makes used of background processing using Skype technologies on computer software. This is exactly why Skype was originally named by its creators as Skype Peer to peer system.

Ban of Skype

Some of the corporate and network administrators have banned Skype. They feel that it is unsafe as data can be transferred easily. Some avoid it as Skype uses a lot of bandwidth. Some also claim that Skype leads to inappropriate use of resources. Microsoft looking at these concerns decided to take a historic step. Microsoft wanted people to use Skype more. This is exactly why they said that their traditional Windows live messenger will be discontinued. This was done in 2013. Only China continues to use windows live messenger. The rest of the world is not using this anymore. This has made a good change in the use of Skype. More and more users are taking up Skype to chat.

The US intelligence agency called NSA can track the activities on Skype. They can also track activities that are outside the country. This ensures that the security challenge that may occur due to Skype is tracked.

The Skype had exchanged a lot of hands before it moved into the firm grasp of Microsoft. In the year 2005 Skype was taken over by eBay. They bought it for two and a half billion dollars. They were not able to control the activities of the Skype. This is exactly why they sold sixty five per cent of the stakes to some more small organisations. The agreement was for almost two million dollars.

How to use Skype?

If you want to use the Skype you can easily download it online. Ensure that you download the latest version of the same. When you download the Skype you can go ahead and send requests to the people you want to add to your contact list. Every Skype user is giver a user id and a password. You must ensure that you don’t accept the contact request from strangers. Try to keep the password of Skype confidential if you are using it in office.

Once you have downloaded Skype you can chat with anyone across the world without spending a penny on call. The best part is that you can do a video chat too. This gives you a feel that the person is with you. You can use emoticons to make the Skype experience more fun. You can store the chat history in Skype. This helps you to check the communication that you had. For example you have forgotten something you can go and check the same again. Skype can be used for both personal and professional uses.

If you are offline you can get the messages when you login back. The Skype can be used to make calls to almost all the countries of the world. Skype can support conference call for up to twenty five users. This is a number that no online chatting tool can beat so far. Two people can share video chat for free. However, if there are more than two people premium chatting has to be availed. This service is not free. Skype can also help to call emergency numbers within the United States.

In 2011 Skype has partnered with Comcast so that video chat can be done using HDTV sets. Today Skype has about fifty million online users all across the globe. The Skype is supported by Nokia, Sony and Samsung. As a result Skype can be downloaded into cell phones and mobile phones.

We hope that you liked this brief article on the history of Skype. It is indeed interesting that the concept evolved so soon. Skype is very popular among people of all age. We expect that in the future the concept of Skype is only going to gain more popularity.