Microsoft announced that it will discontinue its Skype service on May 5th, bringing an end to the platform’s two-decade run. Skype emerged in the early 2000s, predating the smartphone era, as a web-based service enabling free audio and video calls globally.
At its zenith, Skype boasted hundreds of millions of users, even becoming a verb as people would say they would “Skype” someone. The startup was established in 2003 by Swede Niklas Zennström and Dane Janus Friis. The software was developed by Estonians Ahti Heinla, Priit Kasesalu, Jaan Tallinn, and Toivo Annus, and the company was headquartered in Luxembourg.
Microsoft acquired Skype in 2011 for $8.5 billion (£6.8bn) in what was, at that time, Microsoft’s largest acquisition, outbidding both Google and Facebook. Skype had around 150 million users at the time, but usage declined to 23 million by 2020, although a slight increase was noted during the pandemic.
Microsoft faced challenges integrating Skype into its suite of tools, and the launch of the Teams suite in 2017 signaled a shift in priorities away from Skype. The rise of smartphones and competition from services like Apple’s FaceTime and Google’s various communications apps also contributed to Skype’s diminished prominence, and more recently the platform faced competition from easy-to-use tools like Zoom and Slack, owned by Salesforce.
“Skype has been an integral part of shaping modern communications,” Microsoft said in a statement. The company stated it will assist existing Skype users in transitioning to Teams on any supported device using their existing credentials, with automatic migration of chats and contacts.
While Microsoft did not release Skype’s latest user figures, it noted that Teams has 320 million monthly active users. The company also confirmed that the closure of Skype will not result in any job cuts.
