Janus Friis (born 1976) is a Danish entrepreneur best known for co-founding the file-sharing application KaZaA, and the peer-to-peer telephony application Skype. In September 2005, he and his partner Niklas Zennström sold Skype to eBay for $2.6bn. They are currently working on Joost - an interactive software for distributing TV shows and other forms of video over the Web. See Shared resource for the conventional meaning of file sharing File sharing is the practice of making files available for other users to download over the Internet and smaller networks. ... 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 a network that relies on the computing power and bandwidth of the participants in the network rather than concentrating it in a relatively few servers. ... Skype (IPA: ) is a software program that allows users to make calls over the Internet to other Skype users free of charge and to landlines and cell phones for a fee. ... Niklas Zennström Niklas Zennström at WITNESS Gala 2007 Niklas Zennström, born 1966, is a Swedish entrepreneur. ... This article is about the online auction center. ... For other uses, see Joost (disambiguation). ...

Before embarking on an entrepreneurial career with Zennström, Friis worked at the help desk of CyberCity, one of Denmark’s first Internet service providers. He has no formal higher education since dropping out of high-school before starting the job at CyberCity. He met Zennström in 1996. At that time, Zennström headed Tele2 in Denmark and Friis was hired to run its customer support ^[1]. Cybercity is a leading Danish internet service provider owned by Telenor. ... “ISP” redirects here. ... Tele2 AB is one of Europes biggest alternative telecommunications operators with over 30 million customers in 22 countries. ...

Friis and Zennström worked together at Tele2 to launch get2net, another Danish ISP, and the portal everyday.com.

After this, the partners decided to leave Tele2. Friis moves in to Zennström's small apartment in Amsterdam in January 2000 where the duo starts developing Kazaa^[2], the company responsible for the most popular software for use with the FastTrack file sharing network protocol. The FastTrack protocol itself is also codesigned by Friis. 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. ... FastTrack is a peer-to-peer protocol, used by the Kazaa (and variants, Grokster and iMesh) file sharing programs. ...

From the success of KaZaA’s peer-to-peer technology the duo co-founded Joltid, a software company developing and marketing peer-to-peer solutions and peer-to-peer traffic optimization technologies to companies.

Friis is also co-founder of Altnet, a network that sells commercial music to Kazaa users.

Friis enjoys skydiving, pool, martial arts and winter sea bathing. Skydiver about to land Parachuting, or skydiving, is a recreational activity, competitive sport and method of deployment of military personnel (and occasionally, firefighters). ... This article is about the various cue sports. ... Hawaiian State Grappling Championships. ... This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedias deletion policy. ...

Friis was named in Time Magazine 2006 list of 100 most influential people. (Clockwise from upper left) Time magazine covers from May 7, 1945; July 25, 1969; December 31, 1999; September 14, 2001; and April 21, 2003. ...

He currently works on a new peer-to-peer video distribution service called Joost together with his partner Niklas Zennström. For other uses, see Joost (disambiguation). ...

In 2006 Janus Friis got the prestigious award “IT-prisen” (The IT price) in his home country, given by the Danish IT industry and IDG, for his work and innovation. International Data Group (IDG) is a publisher of magazines which focus on information technology. ...

He and Zennstrom were also the co-recipients of the 2006 Wharton Infosys Business Transformation Award, given to business and individuals who have used information technology in a way that changed an industry or society as a whole. In 2002, the Wharton Business School of the University of Pennsylvania and Infosys started the Wharton Infosys Business Transformation Award. ...

External links

• Personal blog - NOT UPDATED SINCE 2007

Notes and references