Microsoft on Feb. 28 announced it was retiring Skype, the online voice and video call pioneer that the tech titan acquired in 2011.
“Starting in May 2025, Skype will no longer be available,” said a post from Skype support on X, directing users to sign into Microsoft’s Teams platform for further use of its services.
Skype was founded in 2003 by Scandinavians Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis in Estonia, revolutionizing Internet communication by offering free voice calls between computers and affordable rates for calls to landlines and mobile phones.
Photo: AFP 照片：法新社
Over the years, and as Internet speeds improved, Skype evolved to include video calls, instant messaging, file sharing and group communication features.
By 2005, Skype had already reached 50 million registered users, demonstrating its rapid global adoption.
Online auction site eBay acquired Skype in 2005 for approximately US$2.6 billion, but the expected synergies never panned out, and in 2009, eBay sold a majority stake to a group of investors, who then sold it to Microsoft.
Photo: AP 照片：美聯社
In recent years, especially after the rise of the smartphone, Skype failed to hold onto its place against new rivals such as Meta-owned WhatsApp and Zoom, as well as Microsoft’s own Teams.
“We’ve learned a lot from Skype... as we’ve evolved Teams over the last seven to eight years,” Jeff Teper, president of Microsoft 365 collaborative apps and platforms, told CNBC.
“But we felt like now is the time because we can be simpler for the market, for our customer base, and we can deliver more innovation faster just by being focused on Teams.”
Photo: AFP 照片：法新社
Microsoft said that Skype group chats would remain intact in the transition to Teams and that during a 60-day window, messages on Microsoft and Teams would be interoperable so you can message contacts from Teams and those messages would be delivered to friends still using Skype.
In one big change, Microsoft is removing Skype’s telephony features, meaning you would no longer be able to call regular phone numbers, cell phones or make international calls through the service.
Microsoft told The Verge that these features are no longer as relevant in today’s communication landscape where mobile data plans are less expensive.
The name “Skype” derived from “Sky peer-to-peer,” the technology that was fundamental to Skype’s original architecture.
The peer-to-peer aspect was crucial as it distributed the network demands across users’ computers rather than relying solely on centralized servers, which was a key innovation that allowed Skype to scale rapidly during its early years.
(AFP)
微軟2月28日宣布，將停止營運Skype。Skype是線上語音及視訊通話先驅，2011年被微軟收購。
Skype支援服務在社群媒體X上發布一則貼文表示：「2025年5月起，Skype將停用」，並引導用戶登入微軟的 Teams平台，才能繼續使用其服務。
Skype由斯堪的納維亞人尼可拉斯．詹士莊與亞努斯．傅利斯2003年在愛沙尼亞創立，提供電腦之間的免費語音通話，以及用實惠的價格撥打市話與手機，為網路通訊帶來革命性的改變。
多年來，隨著網路速度的提高，Skype不斷演進，納入了視訊通話、即時通訊、檔案共享及群組通訊功能。
到了2005年，Skype的註冊用戶數已達五千萬，顯示它在全球的普及速度很快。
線上拍賣網站eBay在2005年以約26億美元收購了Skype，但預期的協同加乘效應並未實現，2009年，eBay將多數股權出售給一群投資者，而這些投資者之後將其出售給微軟。
近年來，尤其是智慧型手機興起之後，Skype未能守住其地位，不敵Meta旗下的WhatsApp和Zoom，以及微軟自家的Teams等新競爭對手。
微軟365協作應用程式及平台總裁傑夫．泰珀向CNBC電視台表示：「在過去的七、八年裡，我們不斷改進Teams，從Skype學到了很多東西」。
「但我們覺得現在時機成熟了，因為我們可以針對市場、針對客戶群簡化流程，而且只要專注於Teams，我們就能更快地提供更多創新」。
微軟表示，Skype的群組聊天功能在向Teams過渡期間將不受影響，並且在60天內，微軟和Teams上的訊息可以互通，因此您可以從Teams向聯絡人發送訊息，這些訊息會傳送給仍在使用Skype的朋友。
微軟做出的一項重大改變是刪除了Skype的電話功能，這表示您將無法再透過該服務撥打普通電話號碼、手機或國際電話。
微軟向科技新聞網站The Verge表示，在當今行動數據方案價格較低的通訊環境下，這些功能已不再那麼重要。
「Skype」這個名字源自「天空點對點」（Sky peer-to-peer），這是Skype原始架構的基礎技術。
點對點的特性至關重要，因為它將網路需求分散到使用者的電腦上，而不是只依賴集中式伺服器，這是Skype在早期得以迅速擴張的關鍵創新。
（台北時報林俐凱編譯）
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