Microsoft is Shutting Down Skype, but Demand is Still High
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Skype's days are numbered. Microsoft has officially announced it'll pull the plug in May, steering users towards Teams instead, and I have so many questions. Mostly, is anyone still using Skype? And, what does this really mean for Microsoft's position in the hyper-competitive communication market?
Skype predates mobile apps, having launched in 2003 and going mobile as soon as the App Store and Google Play opened up. You'd expect that in 2025, so many years later, the app won't get (m)any downloads. After all, Zoom has changed the market for communication, right?
Wrong!
Although Skype's downloads are down 70% since 2018, Appfigures estimates show the OG Zoom saw 17M new downloads in 2024. And that's after years of being ignored and choked by Microsoft, which bought he company back in 2011.
That's more downloads than Slack, a platform many businesses think is the only solution to communicate, and an app that's actively being marketed.
So, why is Microsoft shutting Skype down now?
To compete with Zoom. Oh the irony. When Skype launched, it became the communication tool for many. The internet was fairly young and video chats weren't as common. Skype changed that and quickly became the communication tool for teams, companies, and even governments.
If you remember the 2000s you probably remember seeing Skype's logo on a live broadcast.
But those were the old days. These days, Zoom is the leader and Microsoft's Team platform isn't. It's second, at least in terms of downloads. According to Appfigures App Intelligence, Zoom was downloaded 126M times in 2024 from the App Store and Google Play while Team was downloaded 98M times.
It's not that big of a gap. Pushing Skype's users to Team would close that gap and potentially even turn the trend, and that's probably why Microsoft is shutting it down - to consolidate its user base and focus it on becoming the leader. And with more than 250M downloads since 2018, according to our estimates, Skype has the potential to make Teams the leader.
I'm not sure it will so I'll be watching the space to see where users go. It'll be an interesting opportunity for other competitors.
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All figures included in this report are estimated. Unless specified otherwise, estimated revenue is always net, meaning it's the amount the developer earned after Apple and Google took their fee.
