Microsoft to shut down Skype in two months, company says switch to Teams

Microsoft will be shutting down Skype for good this year on May 5 after the video call service has been around for 21 years. The shutdown comes after the service had to deal with competition from other video call platforms such as Zoom and others.

According to CNBC, the company announced on Friday that it would be shutting down Skype's operations and Jeff Teper, President of Microsoft 365 told the outlet in an interview, "We’ve learned a lot from Skype over the years that we’ve put into Teams as we’ve evolved teams over the last seven to eight years."

"But we felt like now is the time because we can be simpler for the market, for our customer base, and we can deliver more innovation faster just by being focused on Teams," Teper added.

The tech giant is encouraging Skype users to use Microsoft Teams as opposed to Skype as the video service comes to a close. Over the next few days, Microsoft will be allowing for those using the video call service to log onto Teams using their information stored on Skype. All credits that customers have bought or subscriptions will move over to Teams.

"This is obviously a big, big moment for us, and we’re certainly very grateful in many ways,” Teper told the outlet. “Skype pioneered audio and video calling on the web for many, many people."

Skype has been one of the more long-lasting brands in the tech industry for its innovative service, allowing for face-to-face interaction over the internet instead of using a phone. In one year after its 2003 launch, there were 11 million registered users.

The video service was bought up by eBay for $2.6 billion once there were 54 million users in 2005. However, over time, competition grew in the market. Microsoft acquired Skype in 2011 for $8.5 billion. Apple's FaceTime feature was beginning to cut into Skype's market share on video calls. Then when the Covid-19 pandemic came, and Zoom exploded in the market.

"I think a good write-up of the history of the thing would mark the shift to mobile and cloud as a significant change in the communications category," Teper summed up about Skype's shutdown.