Skype Founders Launch New Internet Project

The founders of VoIP service Skype, entrepreneurs Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, have named their new social-networking meets TV-programming internet venture Joost.

Previously code-named the Venice Project, Joost is currently undergoing testing. It is described by its creators as putting together the “best of TV and the best of the internet” by creating a piracy-proof online platform intended to appeal to users and allay any copyright fears of media owners.

Zennstrom and Friis sold Skype to eBay in 2005 for £1.4 billion. Zennstrom and Friis also founded Kazaa, the file-sharing website, selling it in 2002 to Sydney-based Sharman Networks.

Frederick de Wahl, chief executive of Joost, said: “People are looking for increased choice and flexibility in their TV experience, while the entertainment industry needs to retain control over their content. We have married that consumer desire with the industry’s interests.”

The then named Venice Project quietly launched its beta testing at the end of last year, with its creators inviting thousands of people to begin using the service to help its developers work out early bugs (see Skype Creators’ Revolutionary TV Project Begins Testing).

Joost: www.joost.com