Short of money, they applied for and got the Tele2 job. But by the turn of the century, the three friends were down to their last penny and Bluemoon was facing bankruptcy. (In 1989, Kosmonaut became the first Estonian game to be sold abroad.) The game earned its creators $5,000 dollars, which at the time was a large sum for any Estonian. They started a small company, Bluemoon, which made computer games such as Kosmonaut. They had been into Fidonet, a computer network which preceded the Internet, since the Soviet era. The work went to Jaan Tallinn, Ahti Heinla, and Priit Kasesalu-Estonian schoolmates and tech fans. This is the real story of how a global brand truly began, told in more detail than ever before by those who launched it.

Skype is no longer the upstart that refused to put signs on its offices, that dodged international lawyers, and that kept a kiddie pool in the boardroom. It also made Jaan Tallinn and other early Skypers rich.īut something changed along the way. That increase in minutes was 'more than twice that achieved by all international carriers in the world, combined.' That is to say, Skype today poses a serious threat to the largest telcos on the planet. By 2012, according to Telegeography, Skype accounted for a whopping 167 billion minutes of cross-border voice and video calling in a year-which itself was a stunning 44 percent growth over 2011. On August 29, 2003, Skype went live for the first time. So why does he no longer care about his creation? Tallinn has five children, and he calls Skype his sixth. Besides, I have more important things going on now.' 'The technology is 10 years old-that's an eternity when it comes to the Internet Age. 'I don't care about Skype!' millionaire Jaan Tallinn tells me, taking off his blue sunglasses and finding a seat at a cozy open-air restaurant in the old town of Tallinn, Estonia. But given Skype's recent anniversary (and Labor Day weekend for Ars staff), we're resurfacing it.

This origin story of the service originally ran on September 2, 2013, when Skype's partnership with Microsoft was still new and before the Redmond company closed its London office. In the time since, of course, the service has undergone a number of big changes.

Fifteen years ago this week-on August 29, 2003-Skype went live for the first time.

Who owns skype