Microsoft seems to have killed it:(
Skype, a revolutionary app for borderless communication, was created by a group of friends and Scandinavian entrepreneurs in Estonia.
Summarized by Merlin App:
00:00 Skype revolutionized communication across borders with its app
02:02 Skype’s success was due to the team’s experience with peer-to-peer technology and their ability to captivate users.
03:40 Skype’s success was due to its social nature
05:34 Skype’s acquisition by Microsoft for $8.5 billion
07:33 Skype failed to innovate and lost out to competitors like WhatsApp and Microsoft Teams.
09:24 Microsoft is focusing on Teams for communication, not Skype.
11:20 Skype’s future is uncertain
13:12 Skype has 36 million daily active users, but its profitability remains thin.
Detailed Summary for What Happened To Skype by Merlin
00:00 Skype revolutionized communication across borders with its app
– Skype was launched in 2003 by a group of childhood friends and Scandinavian entrepreneurs
– It was the first to bring voice calls over the internet to the masses, and was later acquired by Microsoft
02:02 Skype’s success was due to the team’s experience with peer-to-peer technology and their ability to captivate users.
– Jaan Tallinn, a founding engineer at Skype, had previous experience with Kazaa and other projects.
– Skype initially used Voice Over IP technology and quickly grew to over 11 million users in its first year.
03:40 Skype’s success was due to its social nature
– Skype’s success was due to its social nature, as users had to invite others to use it to communicate for free over the internet.
– Despite skepticism, eBay acquired Skype for $2.6 billion in 2005, but failed to realize the synergies they had hoped for and eventually sold it in 2009.
05:34 Skype’s acquisition by Microsoft for $8.5 billion
– Skype was sold by eBay to Silver Lake in 2009 for $2.75 billion
– Microsoft acquired Skype in 2011 and planned to integrate it into its existing products
07:33 Skype failed to innovate and lost out to competitors like WhatsApp and Microsoft Teams.
– Skype’s goal to reach 1 billion daily users was not achieved.
– Microsoft Teams successfully took users from Skype with additional features.
09:24 Microsoft is focusing on Teams for communication, not Skype.
– Teams has more features and can support more people on calls than Skype.
– Teams has grown faster than Skype, with 300 million monthly active users and 75 million daily users during the pandemic.
11:20 Skype’s future is uncertain
– Skype’s founders have moved on to start their own companies
– Microsoft is trying to make Skype happen in a bigger way now with Bing chat bot
13:12 Skype has 36 million daily active users, but its profitability remains thin.
– Microsoft cares about being profitable and Skype may be paying for itself, but not making a huge amount of money for Microsoft today.
– Skype’s user data or profitability is not known since Microsoft has sporadically provided data since its acquisition in 2011.