Skype

About

As of 2026, it's 23 years old.

Skype arrived in 2003 from the same Scandinavian troublemakers behind the file-sharing service Kazaa, and it did something miraculous for the time: free calls to anyone, anywhere, over the internet. Long-distance phone bills wept.

For years it was how families reunited across oceans, how startups held meetings, and how everyone learned that 'Can you hear me now?' is a universal language. Microsoft bought it in 2011 for $8.5 billion.

Skype was the video-call pioneer that connected the planet on a dial-up budget, immortalized forever by a ringtone you can still hear in your head right now.