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2003

Skype makes phone calls free

In 2003 Niklas Zennström starts Skype, a service that lets people call people over the internet instead of regular phones.

The name comes from an early name suggestion: "Sky peer-to-peer". Skype uses some of the technologies from peer-to-peer software Kazaa, a file sharing program which was also created by Niklas Zennström.

Skype is bought by Ebay in 2005

In 2005 Ebay buys Skype for 19 billion SEK. Zennström instantly becomes one of Sweden's richest people. Skype is later sold to an investment group and in 2011 Microsoft takes it over for more than 50 billion SEK. The software has been downloaded over 160 million times.

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