Hardware Podcasts

Skype and Kazaa: Niklas Zennström

How I Built This · 17 Mar 2025 · 1h 10m

What this episode covers

Niklas Zennström, co-founder of Kazaa and Skype, recounts his journey from a Swedish telecom engineer to a serial entrepreneur who disrupted the music and telecommunications industries. He details the creation of Kazaa, the subsequent legal battles with the RIAA that forced its sale, and the pivot to building Skype using peer-to-peer technology to bypass expensive international calling fees. Zennström explains how Skype achieved viral growth through free access and Skype Out credits, leading to its acquisition by eBay for $2.6 billion and later by Microsoft for $8.5 billion.

Most relevant to

founders before launch, early-stage companies and companies scaling up

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
RIAA, eBay, Microsoft, Teletu, Atomico, Yahoo, Google, AOL
Products
Kazaa, Skype, Napster, RDIO, Spotify
Also
Bill Draper, Janus Friis

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