Microsoft Is Shutting Down Skype After 20 Years: 'A Big, Big Moment' Microsoft is encouraging Skype users to connect through Teams instead.
By Sherin Shibu Edited by Melissa Malamut
Key Takeaways
- Microsoft confirmed on Friday that it will shut down Skype on May 5.
- Skype has experienced a steep drop in user count, from 405 million users in 2008 to 36 million in 2023.
Skype, the once-popular calling and messaging platform owned by Microsoft, is shutting down for good on May 5 as Microsoft urges existing users to move to Teams.
"In order to streamline our free consumer communications offerings so we can more easily adapt to customer needs, we will be retiring Skype in May 2025 to focus on Microsoft Teams, our modern communications and collaboration hub," Microsoft announced on Friday, per PCMag.
To make the transition easier, Microsoft will allow Skype users to log into Teams using their Skype credentials over the next few days. All of their Skype contacts and chats will transfer over. Anyone who does not want to use Teams can choose to export their Skype data.
Related: Here's Why Microsoft Is Separating Teams From the Rest of the Office Suite
Jeff Teper, president of Microsoft 365 collaborative apps and platforms, told CNBC that Microsoft was killing Skype to streamline its offerings and focus more on Teams.
"We learned a lot from Skype over the years that we've put into Teams," Teper told the outlet.
Skype was first launched in 2003 as a free tool for calling people online. It quickly gained traction: When eBay acquired Skype for $2.6 billion in late 2005, the video chatting platform had amassed 40 million global users. By 2008, Skype had managed to grow its user base more than tenfold with 405 million users.
Microsoft acquired Skype for $8.5 billion in October 2011, and over the next decade, competition from Apple's FaceTime and Meta's WhatsApp impacted Skype's numbers. Users also criticized Skype's many redesigns, one of which transformed the app to look more like Snapchat.
Meanwhile, Microsoft debuted Teams in 2017 as a direct competitor to the workplace messaging platform Slack. Teams offered chat, audio and video conferencing, and file-sharing capabilities. During the pandemic, Skype lost ground to Zoom, which saw a 1,900% increase in daily users during the first half of 2020, and Teams, which saw 894% growth from March to June 2020.
Related: Amazon Is Replacing Chime, Its Proprietary Video Conferencing Software, With...Zoom
Skype lagged behind, only growing by 70% from February to March 2020. It has since lost daily active users, going from 40 million users in March 2020 to 36 million in 2023.
In comparison, Teams has grown to 320 million users by April 2024.
Tepper said that retiring Skype was "a big, big moment" for Microsoft.
"We're certainly very grateful in many ways," he told CNBC. "Skype pioneered audio and video calling on the web for many, many people."
