Skype

The app that made calling the world free

Replaced
19902026

Skype made internet voice and video calls mainstream, launched in 2003 by the founders of Kazaa and built by Estonian engineers. eBay paid $2.6 billion for it in 2005, Microsoft paid $8.5 billion in 2011, and at its peak it carried a large share of the world's international calls. Microsoft retired it on 5 May 2025 in favour of Teams.

Timeline [edit]

  1. 2003
  2. 29 August 2003 Launch
    First public beta released

    Free Skype-to-Skype calls over a P2P network built by the Kazaa engineering team.

  3. 2005
  4. 12 September 2005 Acquisition
    eBay announces $2.6 billion acquisition

    One of the largest internet deals of its era; the synergy never materialises.

  5. 2006
  6. April 2006 Peak
    100 million registered users

    Skype reaches nine digits within three years of launch.

  7. 2009
  8. 19 November 2009 Acquisition
    Silver Lake consortium buys control

    eBay sells 65% for $1.9 billion after writing down the acquisition.

  9. 2011
  10. 10 May 2011 Acquisition
    Microsoft pays $8.5 billion

    Microsoft's biggest acquisition to date; Skype replaces Windows Live Messenger.

  11. 2013
  12. 8 April 2013 Peak
    Messenger migration swells Skype

    Windows Live Messenger users are folded in; Microsoft cites over 300 million monthly users.

  13. 2017
  14. June 2017 Incident
    The Snapchat-style redesign backlash

    A stories-like rewrite alienates the core calling audience and is largely rolled back.

  15. 2020
  16. April 2020 Decline
    Zoom wins the pandemic

    Video calling explodes worldwide; the moment Skype was built for goes to a competitor.

  17. 2025
  18. 28 February 2025 Shutdown announced
    Microsoft announces Skype's retirement

    Users are offered migration to Microsoft Teams Free.

  19. 5 May 2025 Shutdown
    Skype retires after almost 22 years

    The service ends; Teams takes over consumer calling.

The site through time

Browse skype.com as it was, via the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine:

2003 2007 2011 2015 2019 2023 2025 Full archive →

Ownership [edit]

Skype Technologies 2003–2005 Founded Founded in Luxembourg, engineering in Tallinn
eBay 2005–2009 Acquisition, $2.6B
Silver Lake investor consortium 2009–2011 Acquisition, $1.9B eBay kept a minority
Microsoft 2011–2025 Acquisition, $8.5B Retired in favour of Teams in 2025

Key figures [edit]

MetricValueAs ofConfidence
Registered accounts 100 million April 2006 Reported
Monthly active users ▲ 300 million April 2013 Reported Monthly connected users cited around the Messenger migration

Confirmed official figures · Reported media, cites a source · Estimated analyst or our estimate

Why it shut down [edit]

Official line: Microsoft said it was streamlining its free consumer communications offerings and moved Skype users to Microsoft Teams Free.

Our analysis: Skype missed the smartphone shift, lost consumer calling to WhatsApp and FaceTime, then lost its own pandemic moment to Zoom while Microsoft invested in Teams. The retirement formalised a decade of decline.

History [edit]

From P2P outlaws to the world's phone company

Skype came from the same minds as Kazaa: Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, with the Estonian engineering team of Ahti Heinla, Priit Kasesalu and Jaan Tallinn. The same peer-to-peer thinking that had made file sharing unstoppable made voice calls free. Released as a beta in August 2003, it spread through word of mouth: calls to other Skype users cost nothing at a time when international calls were billed by the minute.

"Skype me" entered the vocabulary. eBay bought the company in 2005 for $2.6 billion hoping buyers and sellers would call each other (they didn't), wrote much of it off, and sold control to investors in 2009. Microsoft outbid everyone in May 2011 with $8.5 billion in cash, its largest acquisition to that date, and made Skype the replacement for Windows Live Messenger.

The long fade

At its peak Skype carried a meaningful share of all international calling minutes and reported over 300 million monthly users. But the product was rebuilt repeatedly (a 2017 Snapchat-style redesign was widely hated), mobile-first competitors ate consumer messaging, and when a pandemic handed video calling its biggest moment in history, the world chose Zoom instead. Microsoft's own Teams became the strategic bet, and on 28 February 2025 the company announced Skype would retire on 5 May 2025, offering users a migration into Teams Free. The service went quiet after almost 22 years.

Similar projects

ICQ The messenger that gave you a number 1996–2024 MSN Messenger The sound of nudges after school 1999–2014 AIM Away messages and slammed doors 1997–2017 Yahoo Messenger Booted from the chat room one last time 1998–2018 Google Allo Google's WhatsApp that wasn't 2016–2019 Google Hangouts One messenger to rule them all, briefly 2013–2022

Sources [edit]

  1. The next chapter: Moving from Skype to Microsoft Teams Microsoft 28 February 2025 [archived]
  2. Microsoft hangs up on Skype: Service to shut down May 5, 2025 TechCrunch 28 February 2025 [archived]
  3. It's last call for Skype as the once-popular video calling app shuts down NPR 5 May 2025 [archived]

Last verified: 11 August 2026. Spotted an error? Suggest an edit (corrections with sources are reviewed and applied).