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Microsoft is shuttering its skype video-calling service 14 years after buying the company for $ 8.5bn, hanging up on a pioneer of internet communications that upended the telecoms industry and paved the way for whatsapp and zoom.
Seattle-based Microsoft said Friday it retires in May service and start moving customers in the free version of its equivalent.
“Skype is an important part of shaping modern communications and supports countless meaningful moments.” Jeff Teper said, president of Microsoft 365 counterative apps and platforms.
Teper added that the company understands that the step is difficult for some customers.
Skype is a pioneer to make the phone and video calling the internet somewhere in the world, a variety that raises the telecom business model charging the long minutes for international calls for international calls for international calls for international calls.
“Skype is a revolutionary product during this time and I am always proud and grateful for the first team members and investors Niklas Zennstrriktröm, who continues to launch Europech Tech Investor.
“Now the other companies are being amusing this space to offer new services for a new generation, most of them have no idea how expensive to call Australia.”
Microsoft’s decision to close Skype comes seven years after releasing chat teams and video calling groups in video, offering many similar features like Skype.
The business struggles to acquire upstarts including WhatsApp, Telegram and WeChat, while it falls along the zoom zooming of zoos services.
Skype was established in Luxembourg in 2003 by Zennström and Janus Friis, leading various groups of European developers. Its technology emerged from the disturbed world of file-to-peer file, blamed for facilitating mass mass music and films in the early 2000s.
Riding the wave early adoption of broadband, millions of users can easily attract – as well as competition from larger internet companies including Google.
Skype gets eCommerce eBay platform for $ 2.6bn in 2005 in an agreement that dominates the Sopicon Valley of Internet companies after a long hangover after DotCom bust.
Two years later, however, ebay took a $ 1.4bn writtenntown to invest in the basis that the claim was not made as expected.
In 2009, a consortium of investors including the Andreessen Horowitz and Silver Lake purchased by the company. After Microsoft Skype has been obtained in 2011 – the same year established – in a call to regain consumer internet compete contest from Google.
Microsoft describes the former principal executive ballmer in 2011 Deal As a “great opportunity” for the offering company of services that follow voice and video calls. “Microsoft and Skype together mean this future and exactly what it is, like it looks,” he said.
“Skype exploits broadband to first and lock a great need for free voice calls before,” said Benedict Evans, a tech analyst and consultant.
“This is also a European story,” he added, in part because there is more need for cross-border calling there than in America. But now, calling the internet is integrated with many apps. “It turns out to be a generic technology,” Evans said.
Microsoft continues to cut Skype services since teams launch and stop Skype for business in 2017.
Last year, Microsoft said to stop customers to add credits to their accounts, rather than using this monthly subscription.
Skype has more than 36mn users in 2023, if it last reported these numbers, dropped from one end of 300mn in 2016. It has got to be in the business if it has 30mner customers.
Microsoft explained it to skype customers with teams that allow them to use their credentials today to sign in to service. They can also export data including chats, contacts, and call history if they do not want to use the service.
Skype users who pay subscription users available to any credits until the end of their next change period.