August 2005

(Luxembourg 31 August 2005) – Skype, the pioneering Global Internet Communications Company which makes it possible for anyone with an Internet connection to make free high-quality phone calls, has awarded Jyve the first prize in Skype’s hotly-contested first developer competition. More than 100 developers entered the competition, which was open to Skype’s thriving community of partners and independent developers. More than 400 hardware and software products that integrate with Skype’s rich features have already been developed by Skype’s expanding network of partners.

“I’m thrilled to congratulate Jyve for winning our developer competition,” said Niklas Zennström, Skype CEO and co-founder. “The competition was fierce and we are so excited by the creativity of the developer community, and can’t wait to work more with this ever expanding network of partners. We also want to give special mention to Khaos Labs, Columbus CRM, Iskoot, Audiomatic and SalesForce.com for their outstanding products.”

Jyve won the top award of 2,000 Euros for a plugin that lets webmasters enable Skype and call forwarding, presence, browser synchronization and auto-responding features on their sites. Khaos Labs received a special mention for its Free ActiveS COM wrapper, which has been used by numerous other developers to help build a range of Skype Extras, which are readily available for download from the Skype Developer Zone. The Skype’s Developers’ Competition was launched on April 26.

Skype’s Thriving Developer Zone

The Skype Developer Zone is a resource for developers interested in working with Skype’s Application Programming Interface (APIs), which is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Skype’s APIs have been integrated into a wide range of community, enterprise, entertainment and productivity products, as well as hundreds of hardware products and services. Some of the highlights include:

• Hardware – Siemens and RTX cordless phones


• Software – such as Skype virtual business cards, ways to listen to your mp3 collections, and personal assistants

In addition, Skype announced last week its Open Web program and the availability of its SkypeWeb and SkypeNet APIs to enable developers to plug Skype’s instant messaging and presence into their websites and software applications.

Creation of Platform Advisory Council

To support and steer its platform development, Skype has formed a Platform Advisory Council. The Council currently has 15 members, which are drawn from some of the best and brightest of the Skype developer community, both partners and individuals.

"Skype's Platform Advisory Council is a group of trusted partners who are willing to share their knowledge of the industry and provide Skype with feedback on our plan for the industry,” said Lenn Pryor, Skype Developer Platform Manager. “Thanks to them, we will be able to have more visibility on how we can positively impact our developer community, and we take their advice and implement it into our roadmap. We are honored to have people of this caliber willing to share their time and energy to help us shape our future."

SkypeDay and SkypeNight Partner Events

To support the interest in its Developer Program, Skype is holding a series of partner events around the world where its growing community of partners and developers can get together to learn more about the on the latest opportunities for working with Skype. The next in this series of worldwide events will be held September 22 in Palo Alto, California, October 12 in London, England and November 7 in Tokyo, Japan.

Partners can also visit the Skype Developer Zone.

About Skype Technologies S.A.:

Skype, the Global Internet Communications Company™, allows people everywhere to make free, unlimited, superior quality voice calls via its award-winning innovative peer-to-peer software for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and Pocket PC platforms. Skype is available in 27 languages and is the fastest growing voice communications offering worldwide. Since its launch in August 2003, Skype has been downloaded more than 155 million times in 225 countries and territories. Over 52 million people registered to use Skype’s free services, with over 3 million simultaneous users. Skype has more than 2 million premium customers, with over 12 billion minutes served. Skype Technologies S.A. is headquartered in Luxembourg and is growing its offices in London and Tallinn. Skype Technologies is privately held and backed by top tier international venture capital firms, including Bessemer Venture Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Index Ventures, and Mangrove Capital Partners.

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Luxembourg 24 August 2005 — Skype, the pioneering Global Internet Communications Company, which offers free high-quality phone calls to anyone with an Internet connection, is preparing to mark its second anniversary next week by opening up its platform to anyone who wants to integrate Skype’s presence and instant messaging services into their website or application. By opening up Skype’s platform to the web, it will now be simple for anyone to connect to Skype’s fast growing member base, which has already passed more than 51 million people in just 2 years.

Now anyone will be able to benefit from Skype’s platform and will be able to integrate both presence and instant messaging features into websites and applications such as online gaming, e-commerce, communications and productivity tools, instantly building community and connections between people who can chat and alert others to their online availability. By opening up its platform to the web, Skype will instantly be creating the largest open instant messaging platform in the world.

“In two short years, Skype has pioneered a revolution in global Internet communications by making it simple for anyone with an Internet connection to make and receive superior quality phone calls for free,” said Niklas Zennström, Skype CEO and co-founder. “People love to talk, and voice is fast becoming the key category for global Internet communications. Skype’s mission is to make communicating through the Internet natural and easy to do, so in addition to voice communications we offer the power of both instant messaging and presence, which have become as ubiquitous as email over the last five years. As we enter our third year in business and as the only company totally focused on global Internet communications, we think now is a perfect time to make these popular features available to anyone who wants to build community and communications into their website or applications.”

Skype’s Anniversary Milestones

In just two years, Skype’s highly disruptive and award-winning software for making free high quality phone calls through the Internet has seen:

• over 150 million downloads in 225 countries and territories


• over 51 million people registered to use Skype’s free services


• over 3 million people using the service concurrently


• over 12 billion minutes served (equating to over 45% of all US VoIP traffic – Sandvine, August 2005)


• over 2 million people created accounts for Skype’s paid services

Skype's level of growth in both free (51 million) and paid services (2 million) already eclipses the growth of today’s Internet giants. After two years Skype is already twice the relative size of Yahoo! (26 million registered) and over six times the relative size of AOL (303k paying subscribers).

To support its growth and in recognition of the size of the global Internet communications opportunity, Skype has invested significantly in building out its local presence worldwide to serve the needs of its global member base. Skype is already offered in 27 languages and www.skype.com can be read in more than 22 local versions and languages. Skype also has representation and major partnerships in over 15 countries, including USA, China, Japan, UK, Germany, France, Sweden, Brazil, South Korea, Spain, Estonia, Poland and Taiwan.

SkypeNet and SkypeWeb APIs

Skype is now extending its investment to the rest of the Web, by opening up of the SkypeNet and SkypeWeb Application Programming Interface (API) as part of the Skype Developer Program, which already supports a thriving community of partners and developers working with Skype to help build the next generation of services taking advantage of Skype’s revolutionary software For more information about Skype’s expanding developer network and how to work with Skype, please see: http://share.skype.com/share/developer_blog/.

“Skype’s continuing innovation is leading the revolution of internet communications, and opening up the Skype Net and Skype Web API to the web is a major step. Skype is benefiting partners who will recognize the value of being able to leverage Skype’s platform and connect to their rapidly-growing user base,” said Jeff Pulver, CEO of Pulver.com Enterprises.

About Skype Technologies S.A.:

Skype, the Global Internet Communications Company™, allows people everywhere to make free, unlimited, superior quality voice calls via its award-winning innovative software for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and Pocket PC platforms. Skype is available in 27 languages and is the fastest growing voice communications offering worldwide. Since its launch in August 2003, Skype has been downloaded more than 150 million times. Skype Technologies S.A. is headquartered in Luxembourg and is growing its offices in London and Tallinn. Skype Technologies is privately held and backed by top tier international venture capital firms, including Bessemer Venture Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Index Ventures, and Mangrove Capital Partners.

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