By Skype Press Office

Skype Creates the Largest Open IM and Presence Networks Worldwide.

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.”

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.

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.

“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.