BusinessWeek: The Power Of Us

“How can a tiny European upstart like Skype Technologies S.A. do
a number on a trillion-dollar industry? By dialing up a vast,
hidden resource: its own users. Skype, the newest creation from the
same folks whose popular file-sharing software Kazaa freaked out
record execs, also lets people share their resources–legally. When
users fire up Skype, they automatically allow their spare computing
power and Net connections to be borrowed by the Skype network,
which uses that collective resource to route others’ calls. The
result: a self-sustaining phone system that requires no central
capital investment–just the willingness of its users to share.
Says Skype CEO Niklas Zennström: ‘It’s almost like an
organism…'”

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