Death of Skype
[6th May 2025] Yesterday Microsoft finally shut down hashtagSkype. The Zoom-before-Zoom service launched in 2003, the year I joined hashtag ChaChannel 4.
I’m not a technologist but I’ve also never been afraid of it as it’s not rocket science for the most part and it is logical – I’ve always got a kick out of finding interesting applications for new tech. 8 years after the advent of Skype I commissioned the ground-breaking interactive hashtaghealth show ‘Live from the Clinic’, a live interactive mainstream TV spin-off of that poster child of factual multiplatform television, ‘Embarrassing Bodies’. Central to the format was Skype and this was the first time it had been used substantially in the editorial of a programme. The show enabled viewers to seek advice about their health concerns and be seen by doctors Christian & Dawn from the comfort of their own home, live during the prime-time show.
After the 6-part series went out in 2011 we drew the technology and its convenience/cost-saving potential to the attention of the NHS. TBH they were a bit slow on the uptake but a decade later this kind of application of video calling has become a standard hashtaghealthcare practice in the UK.
I remember being in the studio during the live TX and desperately hoping Skype wouldn’t crap up on us. At that time much of the tech involved was a bit fragile and struggled to deal with the unusually massive peaks caused by hashtagTV calls to action. Praise the Big Man, it was alright on the night. At that time the Embarrassing Bodies website was the No. 1 competitor to NHS Online – and more importantly the No. 1 referrer, particularly of people not usually that engaged with their health, like young men.
So now Skype which enabled that innovative, impactful series is being euthanised and put to rest in the MS morgue of killed-off competitors. Microsoft have been focused on Teams at the expense of their acquisition Skype.
Skype – 22 years ago a revolutionary app for free voice & video calls over the internet – peaked at over 300 million monthly users in the mid-2010s. Microsoft acquired it for $8.5bn the year ‘Live From The Clinic’ launched (2011). The competition grew very strong, culminating in the Pandemic when hashtagZoom came into its own & developed at lightening speed. WhatsApp grew into another big beast. Skype quickly faded in their shadow.
It’s an object lesson in how delicate even the biggest platforms can be. Look at the state of Twitter/X. Remember when Murdoch’s News Corp acquired Myspace for $580 million & gave it the corporate kiss of death. The lively Vine withered on the …vine. (You can hear the story of its decline on Global’s new podcast ‘6 Seconds that Changed the World’.) What happens, for example, to the behemoth that is Google as AI displaces traditional search? It’s not a stone-cold killer but it may well shake the foundations a bit and will certainly force Search to up its game. The bottom line: in this day & age nobody (individual or organisation, however big) can rest on their laurels…
Simple Pleasures part 4 
I was an early user – summer 2004. Just after I moved to France it was great to be able to do use it for audio calls (the video part came later), although limited by the fact that almost no-one else did!