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Bad news for anyone still using Skype: The Microsoft-owned phone and messaging platform has quietly stopped letting users top up accounts with credit And buy Skype phone numbers. Instead, Skype is locked into SaaS mode: it pushes users to accept it Monthly subscriptions For regional and global Skype to Phone plans, for a set monthly fee, potentially impacting millions of people. The latest numbers released by Microsoft for Skype last year indicate that it had 36 million daily active users.
Microsoft didn’t officially announce the change: the news was about it Just spotted Last week, in the form of a response from a volunteer moderator on a Microsoft forum to a user who was unable to add credit to a Skype account.
A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch that it has permanently halted new sales of Skype Credit and Skype Numbers, adding that it is “continuously evaluating product strategy based on customer usage and needs.” Existing Skype phone numbers will continue to work, while existing Skype Credit can still be used – albeit under the usual terms, Face to face Users must use their balance at least once within a 180-day period for it to remain active.
Trailblazer
Skype has, over the years, been one of the leaders in online calling and messaging services. Founded in Europe (specifically Luxembourg) in 2003, it was one of the first large-scale and innovative consumer companies. Voice over Internet Protocol Services that allowed users to make free voice calls over the Internet bypassing traditional phone lines (and their associated long-distance costs). It later added support for instant messaging, video, and file sharing, game-changing services that would become stakes for all messaging apps.
The company has also courted several owners over the years. It was acquired by eBay for $4.1 billion in 2005 when the e-commerce platform had big ambitions to spread its wings, although these plans did not pan out, and four years later eBay sold Skype to a private consortium for $2.75 billion. Skype subsequently filed for an IPO in 2010, where it was revealed that it had 560 million registered users and 124 million monthly active users, with only 6% paying for premium services. In 2011, Microsoft swooped in to buy it for $8.5 billion, and Skype has remained under its ownership ever since.
The service has always been completely free for Skype-to-Skype calls, and instead makes money by charging users who want to make calls to mobile or landline numbers. One of its other paid services allowed users to purchase a local phone number so they could make and receive calls as if they were in a specific country. Skype is also monetized through a separate product for business customers.
But the world has moved on from Skype with the likes of WhatsApp and Zoom emerging to fill the void in messaging, video calling, and more. Ironically, Microsoft itself was among those vying to launch Teams in 2016. In the consolidation drive, Teams eventually consumed the Skype for Business product. And so Skype has been on the decline for a while, becoming a peripheral product amid Microsoft’s larger ambitions as a cloud infrastructure juggernaut.
It’s been a long time since Microsoft officially announced Skype usage numbers — perhaps because it didn’t make an effort to push them, and perhaps because the numbers didn’t tell a very positive story.
However, in March 2020, Microsoft open The number of Skype users has soared to 40 million daily users, as people sought ways to stay in touch with loved ones during lockdown. It said this represented a 70 percent increase month-on-month, meaning its typical daily activity was around 23.5 million – although it did not detail how many of those people were using Skype to Skype. In a follow-up statement sent to TechCrunch at the time, the company added that it was used by 100 million people every month.
It’s not clear how many active users Skype has today, and a Microsoft spokesperson said it would not provide an update. However, in A Blog post last year Announcing that its Bing search engine has come to Skype, the company noted that “more than 36 million people use Skype every day to communicate through phone calls and chats across borders and around the world.”
In short, the changes enacted last week likely affect tens of millions of people who used Skype specifically for phone functionality — a functionality that modern messaging apps like WhatsApp don’t have (although Zoom does offer a product called phone Which is more aimed at the business market).
Confusingly, Skype still advertises Skype Credit and Skype Numbers in… Different places on their online properties. When you sign in via the web, Skype still invites users to purchase credit, even though it does not allow users to complete the transaction.
“Sales of new Skype Numbers and Skype Credit have been permanently discontinued,” the spokesperson said. “For some customers, the new Skype Credit purchase interface may remain visible at certain entry points, even though payment attempts will not occur. We are aware of this issue and are working to make the necessary updates.
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