Niklas Zennström is a Swedish entrepreneur. He is the founder of the KaZaA peer-to-peer file sharing network and Skype peer-to-peer internet telephony network. The Kingdom of Sweden (Swedish: Konungariket Sverige  listen) is a Nordic country in Scandinavia, in Northern Europe. ... Kazaa Media Desktop (once capitalized as KaZaA, but now usually left as Kazaa) is a peer-to-peer file sharing application using the FastTrack protocol. ... A peer-to-peer (or P2P) computer network is any network that does not rely on dedicated servers for communication but instead mostly uses direct connections between clients (peers). ... File sharing is the activity of making files available to other users for download over the Internet, but also over smaller networks. ... Skype (pronounced to rhyme with ripe) is a peer-to-peer internet telephony network, founded by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, the creators of Kazaa. ... A peer-to-peer (or P2P) computer network is any network that does not rely on dedicated servers for communication but instead mostly uses direct connections between clients (peers). ... IP Telephony, also called Internet telephony, is the technology that makes it possible to have a telephone conversation over the Internet or a dedicated Internet Protocol (IP) network instead of dedicated voice transmission lines. ...

Background

Niklas is a Swedish citizen born in 1966, with dual degrees in Business Administration and Engineering Physics (MSc, computer science) from Uppsala University in Sweden. He spent his final year at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. The Kingdom of Sweden (Swedish: Konungariket Sverige  listen) is a Nordic country in Scandinavia, in Northern Europe. ... The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor is a public coeducational university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. ...

Career

He started his professional career at the European telecom operator Tele2. Niklas went on to serve in various business development roles including launching and being responsible for European Internet Service Provider business get2net and as CEO of the everyday.com portal. Niklas later co-founded and served as CEO of KaZaA. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is the job of having the ultimate executive responsibility or authority within an organization or corporation. ...

After KaZaA was sold to Sharman Networks, Zennström founded and served as CEO at Joltid, a software company developing and marketing p2p solutions and p2p traffic optimization technologies to companies.

Zennström also co-founded Altnet, the world’s first secure p2p network promoting commercial content to consumers which integrates promotion, distribution, and payment of digital content.

Zennström’s newest venture is Skype, an Internet telephony company based on peer-to-peer principles. Skype (pronounced to rhyme with ripe) is a peer-to-peer internet telephony network, founded by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, the creators of Kazaa. ... IP Telephony, also called Internet telephony, is the technology that makes it possible to have a telephone conversation over the Internet or a dedicated Internet Protocol (IP) network instead of dedicated voice transmission lines. ... A peer-to-peer (or P2P) computer network is any network that does not rely on dedicated servers for communication but instead mostly uses direct connections between clients (peers). ...

External Links

• Zennström at the Skype Founders Page (http://www.skype.com/company/founders.html)
• Engadget Interview with Niklas Zennström (http://features.engadget.com/entry/2635319328796286/)
• Contribution to KaZaa and Skype from Jaan Tallinn from Estonia (http://www.aqris.com/?id=1321)