Comments on: Skype Founders Take on TV

By: What Went Wrong With Joost?

What Went Wrong With Joost? — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 05:31:16 +0000

[...] Celebrity Founders: Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis started the company in 2006 after palming off Skype to eBay for billions of [...]

By: SkypeLand News Update: Video Action, Niklas Spends, WiFi Phones : voiceontheweb.biz

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 22:11:34 +0000

[...] on their Venice Project, a forthcoming video play first revealed in a Business Week story. Om thinks it does not bode well from an eBay investor’s point of [...]

By: Pier Munde

Pier Munde — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 15:37:17 +0000

nice article but i thought co-founders of Skype are from Denmark,not Estonian guys...

By: grizzums

grizzums — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 17:19:48 +0000

Looks like Skype is late to the streaming (not downloading) game…

Gridnetworks (www.gridnetworks.com) is already out there with Reeltime (www.reeltime.com) as there first content provider…from what I know, Reeltime is in deep negotiations for a content deal with a major studio and that may be announced before the end of the year…

They are currently in beta and I spoke with the CEO (Barry Henthorn); he alluded that as soon as they get a major studio finalized then they will open to the public with a massive marketing campaign.

Check out Grid's player in action on reeltime's site…it is quite impressive…with the right content (for reeltime and other providers), Grid will quickly be catipulted to the top and have the edge in what appears to be a hard fought race.

Ive long thought that downloading would be prehistoric in a matter of time and that streaming would be the answer…it appears thats the direction we are headed…

Thats a good thing.

By: paket

paket — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 15:27:18 +0000

"…nearly six major cities"

Wow. That would be - five?

By: Om Malik

Om Malik — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 15:53:30 +0000

still working on getting more details, collecting facts etc. hang on…

By: still waiting

still waiting — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 08:29:24 +0000

well… still waiting, where is the 2nd part of this story as promised?

By: Ramón Pizarro

Ramón Pizarro — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 17:18:04 +0000

¿Qué podemos esperar?

Mi especulación:

El modelo de negocios de la TV es la publicidad. No existe medio con más poder que la llamada pantalla chica para que los anunciantes den inicio a la narración de las historias de sus marcas
Las nuevas generaciones (y sobre todo mientras están jóvenes) no comulgan con el sofá. No se oponen a las pantallas, al contrario las adoran, pero necesitan que éstas les permitan la comunicación en doble vía, la conversación. Prefieren las pantallas que no solo hablan sino aquellas que también escuchan y responden
Combínese 1 y 2 y ¿Qué tenemos? La magia de la TV de los años 60 era reunir a toda la familia frente al receptor (así fuera en blanco y negro) para presenciar juntos (valga la redundancia) las historias que los productores hábilmente sobrecargaban de emociones y misterio… Ocurre sencillamente que el significado de FAMILIA y REUNIRSE ha cambiado… Más no la magia…

By: Richard

Richard — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 16:45:49 +0000

It makes sense to let these guys go "play" with stuff. That's where the best ideas often come from.

I find the most productive and innovative time I get is taking time out of "work" and putting into something that is interesting and challenging. It's amazing how quickly that stuff I've done finds a valuable use in "work"!

I think eBay should be applauded for giving their team the latitude to experiment and try new stuff.

Have you seen the ads on regular TV for eBay? eBay could then advertise on their own TV network? Product searches related to video content could be great. Here's a review on the Technology Channel of the latest gadget - click here to see who's selling it on eBay…

Flop or success, give it a chance. Once upon some guys thought of a HTML page and a worldwide web, maybe a lot of people said "stop that and get back to REAL work" - thank goodness they didn't listen.

By: Jonty

Jonty — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 12:27:55 +0000

I don't know where this will take Zennstrom and Friis or for that matter eBay. The whole thing looks boring, the new venture that is.

By: Mobile Reviewer

Mobile Reviewer — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 04:44:30 +0000

no, next stuff will be "brain connected skype wireless connector":)

By: Jesse Kopelman

Jesse Kopelman — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 22:04:19 +0000

I think Skype was successful because it didn’t start as a US-centric service. Outside the US, telephony was/is much more expensive and that is where the real demand was. Skype came into the US via osmosis — all of a sudden your out of country friends were threatening never to call you again unless you got it. If you got Skype for this reason, you are not going to go to the trouble of convincing other people to change to SIP and thus the pressure for new people to come on to Skype continues to build — easier to join in than force people to change. Anyway, it wouldn’t surprise me if this TV product is also not US-centric, as the TV situation is also much different outside the US (with a lot less effort paid to enforcing copyright in some very populous markets).

By: rick

rick — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 20:57:26 +0000

What's next… electricity?

By: Joe Fallon

Joe Fallon — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 20:09:44 +0000

Skype works like magic. While all that SIP crap is hampered by endless problems with opening ports etc. Sorry, I like the idea of SIP. But I like a nice product that works with out problems even more.

By: rick

rick — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 18:54:41 +0000

From my understanding of the P2P lawsuit waged against Skype by Streamcast, Skype hijacked millions of users from the P2P network in the beginning. This may have given them the critical mass necessary for successful viral marketing.

Plus they did everything else correctly. GIPS.

By: aswath

aswath — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 18:54:36 +0000

I think it was bundled with some version of Kazaa (search indicates that it is V3) during the early part of Skype history. I may be off about how early; but I have a strong suspicion that that played a role (if not a significant) in increasing the download count and also adoption.