Microsoft Shuts Down Skype After 20 Years
March 1, 2025, 4:08 pm

Microsoft Shuts Down Skype After 20 Years

فشل أوروبي في التوصل لاتفاق على قواعد الخصوصية التي تحكم واتساب وسكايب

Microsoft announced on Friday that the Skype application will cease operations on May 5th, as the company has decided to retire the internet calling service after two decades significantly impacting communication across borders.

The tech giant clarified that shutting down Skype will allow Microsoft to focus its efforts on "Teams," which has been developed internally, thereby simplifying its communications offerings.

Founded in 2003, Skype quickly revolutionized the communications landscape by providing voice and video calls, disrupting traditional landline services in the early 2000s. The name Skype became familiar in households after its user base reached hundreds of millions, according to Reuters.

However, the platform has faced challenges in recent years in keeping up with competition from easier-to-use and more reliable tools such as Zoom and Slack from Salesforce. This decline is partly attributed to the incompatibility of Skype's underlying technology with the smartphone era.

As the COVID-19 pandemic increased demand for online business calls, Microsoft aggressively promoted "Teams" by integrating it with other Office applications to attract users who were once part of Skype's substantial user base.

To facilitate the transition to "Teams," Skype users will be able to log in for free on any device using their existing credentials, with chats and contact information transferred automatically.

The shutdown of Skype is part of a series of significant investments that Microsoft has struggled to manage, including the Internet Explorer browser and the Windows Phone operating system. Additionally, many large companies have faced challenges in developing online communication tools, evident from Google's attempts with applications like Hangouts and Duo.

Microsoft has declined to disclose the latest user numbers for Skype, assuring that there will be no job cuts as a result of this move, noting that "Teams" currently boasts approximately 320 million active users monthly.

When Microsoft acquired Skype in 2011 for $8.5 billion, surpassing offers from Google and Facebook in what was its largest deal at the time, about 150 million people were using the service each month. By 2020, that number had dwindled to around 23 million, despite a brief resurgence during the pandemic.

On Friday, Microsoft stated, "Skype has been an integral part of shaping modern communications... We are honored to have been part of this journey."

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BENEFIT, the Kingdom’s innovator and leading company in Fintech and electronic financial transactions service, has sponsored the BuildHer CityHack 2025 Hackathon, a two-day event spearheaded by the College of Engineering and Technology at the Royal University for Women (RUW).
Aimed at secondary school students, the event brought together a distinguished group of academic professionals and technology experts to mentor and inspire young participants.
More than 100 high school students from across the Kingdom of Bahrain took part in the hackathon, which featured an intensive programme of training workshops and hands-on sessions. These activities were tailored to enhance participants’ critical thinking, collaborative problem-solving, and team-building capabilities, while also encouraging the development of practical and sustainable solutions to contemporary challenges using modern technological tools.
BENEFIT’s Chief Executive Mr. Abdulwahed AlJanahi, commented: “Our support for this educational hackathon reflects our long-term strategic vision to nurture the talents of emerging national youth and empower the next generation of accomplished female leaders in technology. By fostering creativity and innovation, we aim to contribute meaningfully to Bahrain’s comprehensive development goals and align with the aspirations outlined in the Kingdom’s Vision 2030—an ambition in which BENEFIT plays a central role.”
Professor Riyadh Yousif Hamzah, President of the Royal University for Women, commented: “This initiative reflects our commitment to advancing women in STEM fields. We're cultivating a generation of creative, solution-driven female leaders who will drive national development. Our partnership with BENEFIT exemplifies the powerful synergy between academia and private sector in supporting educational innovation.”
Hanan Abdulla Hasan, Senior Manager, PR & Communication at BENEFIT, said: “We are honoured to collaborate with RUW in supporting this remarkable technology-focused event. It highlights our commitment to social responsibility, and our ongoing efforts to enhance the digital and innovation capabilities of young Bahraini women and foster their ability to harness technological tools in the service of a smarter, more sustainable future.”
For his part, Dr. Humam ElAgha, Acting Dean of the College of Engineering and Technology at the University, said: “BuildHer CityHack 2025 embodies our hands-on approach to education. By tackling real-world problems through creative thinking and sustainable solutions, we're preparing women to thrive in the knowledge economy – a cornerstone of the University's vision.”