Welcome!

It has been quite a ride to get here.

Skype was launched on August 29, 2003. A bit less than two years ago. Just for some nostalgic memories, here's the original news item.

August 29, 2003. We're proud to announce the public release of Skype Beta and the arrival of P2P Telephony! Skype allows anyone to experience free, unlimited, high-quality voice communication over the Internet. Skype software is free to download and you can always get the latest version by clicking here.

You and us know what has happened inbetween then and now. Reportedly, Skype has become a global telecom player and is changing the way people talk to each other. At least for the thirty-something-million users who have signed up. We have recruited tens of brilliant minds from countries all over, and continue to do so. We have signed partnerships on half of the continents (Africa, Australia and Antarctica remain), reaching, with the help of our partners, even more people, providing them crystal-clear global free voice calls and other free and paid services.

It's demanding for the team. Exhausting at times. Yet fascinating and cool as hell. And we felt like sharing more of the fun, so share.skype.com was born.

We already had a "Community" section at skype.com, letting you easily share Skype to your friends and download developer information. share.skype.com takes these a bit further, making it easier for you to share the Skype experience with those around you, and making it possible for us at Skype to share more of what we do, read, hear and think.

You see, working at Skype is exciting not only because you get to play with the coolest technologies the industry has to offer, but also because you get to define the industry. (Yes, could be a bit of an overstatement, but hey, it's our site! You literally get to define the way how millions of people use their computer and other gadgets, often for a good period of the day and well into the night. You make other people's lives. So you give them good experiences like an opportunity to stay online with their loved ones continents away for hours, or you if you mess up, you may unwillingly trash their important moments by making a piece of software that crashes just as they are about to close that deal or ask that important question.

It's a bit intimidating. Above all, it's a huge responsibility. We feel flattered and honoured that this many millions of folks have entrusted us with running their communications. So we cannot fail you guys — or it comes back to us quickly and painfully. The market is open. Skype has been and continues to be a strong advocate of barrier-free economies and user choice.

We know some people have reservations about Skype for various reasons. We often get questions on our history, motives and network architecture, as well as the longevity and sustainability of our business model. On this site, we intend to provide our own view on all these issues, and more. While the Skype forums continue to be open user-driven discussion areas, we will use share.skype.com to spotlight the issues that are interesting to us at Skype at the time. Hopefully, you will learn who we are, what we do, why we do those things, how we think things should work and be done, and where is the whole thing heading — where "thing" can be Skype, the Internet or telecom industry, or the next gadget or Skype feature, or just something that caught our eye.

Us telling the Skype story is not the only purpose of this site. We'd also like to hear from you all. You can already have banners on your site that earn you points every time someone downloads Skype from it. You can share Skype with your friends. You can continue to exchange with us and other users in the forums. You can comment on most content of this site, and we continue to add other ways how we can interact.

So what's next?

Here are some things you might want to check out immediately. If you're not into either, feel free to just browse around and let us know in the sharing site forum what you think of the site.

• affiliate banners. Put a banner on your site and earn Skype Points! Then come back here and see how you rank up with others on the scoreboard. Read more in Skype Points FAQ.
• developer competition. Skype public API lets you use the functions of Skype from any software application or hardware device, and the competition lets you implement the coolest piece of software you can imagine! And by doing so, you'll be rich and famous well we have some cash prizes there and will showcase your stuff on this site... read more on the competition page.

Once again, welcome to share.skype.com. Let's enjoy the ride.