Recently I had the opportunity to travel to Japan to spend a week with some of our Asian software and hardware developer partners who are building on the Skype API. On 22 June 2005 Skype held its first event to meet with software and hardware developers from Japan, China, and Taiwan together with our partner Nikkei Communications.

The event drew some of the worlds top companies together with Skype to discuss more about the Skype opportunity, and to get them started building solutions that we will showcase at a global event in Tokyo in November 2005. We were joined by 300+ attendees representing some of the world's top companies for an evening of sharing and discussion. While I had the honor of keynoting the event, Niklas joined via video.

One thing I learned on this trip is that Asia is Skype-country. I was overwhelmed with the excitement and creativity of our partners and customers in the region. Look for more events of this sort soon in North America and Europe.