Skype Me? Skype You!Skype Me? Skype You!

First came the ability to swap music files over the Internet, then games and movies. Now Niklas Zennstrom, founder of global file-sharing network, KaZaA, wants everybody talking over the Internet.

As Boardwatch revealed in a recent interview with Zennstrom, the father of P2P networking is set to launch his third software product, Skype, which uses P2P technology to let users talk and exchange text messages via the net (see KaZaA Founder, Niklas Zennstrom).

Hot on the heels of his success with KaZaA, which has been downloaded a staggering 250 million times, Zennstrom hopes Skype will become as widely used as AOL Instant Messenger, and eventually, the good old telephone network!

“People will say 'Skype me' instead of 'Call me,' ” he says. [Ed. note: Blow that trumpet Niklas!]

But hasn't Internet telephony been a disappointment so far? What makes Zennstrom think his approach is any more likely to succeed?

Find out on Boardwatch.

— Jo Maitland, Senior Editor, Boardwatch