Microsoft has officially discontinued Skype today, ending a 21-year run for the pioneering video communication service that once dominated internet calling.
The technology giant, which acquired Skype in 2009, announced the closure in February as part of its strategy to consolidate video communication services around Microsoft Teams, its business-oriented collaboration platform that has gained substantial market share in recent years.
Jeff Taper, President of Microsoft365, previously stated that lessons learned from Skype’s “fall from grace” informed improvements to Teams, noting that concentrating on a single video platform would ultimately deliver better service to customers.
Founded in 2003 by Scandinavians Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis in Estonia, Skype revolutionized internet communication by offering free computer-to-computer voice calls and affordable rates for connecting to traditional phones. The service changed hands multiple times, first being purchased by eBay in 2005 before Microsoft’s acquisition.
Despite its early dominance, Skype struggled to maintain relevance as smartphone adoption increased and competitors like Zoom and Teams gained popularity, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic when remote work drove explosive growth in video conferencing.
Microsoft has been transitioning remaining Skype users to Teams, citing the diminishing importance of Skype’s once-revolutionary low-cost calling rates in today’s market where inexpensive mobile data plans have transformed communication habits.
The closure marks the end of a service that introduced millions of people to internet calling and video chat before such technologies became ubiquitous.