The US tech giant said the move would allow it to focus on its modern online communications platform, Teams, which offers online meeting tools as well as calling and chat features.
The most recent user numbers, from February 2023, showed Skype was used by 36 million people each day, but at its peak it was one of the most popular tools on the internet, becoming the go-to platform in the early days of online video calls in the 2000s and 2010s.
In a blog post announcing the shutdown, Microsoft said: “Skype has been an integral part of shaping modern communications and supporting countless meaningful moments, and we are honoured to have been part of the journey.
In recent years, however, it has been superseded by Teams – Microsoft’s latest online collaboration service – which gained huge popularity during the pandemic and the embrace of remote working.
Skype first launched in 2003, before being acquired by eBay in 2005 and then by Microsoft in 2011 for 8.5 billion dollars, which used it to replace its Windows Live Messenger service.
