Skype was created by Niklas Zennström, Janus Friis, and four Estonian developers, and first released in August 2003. In September 2005, eBay acquired it for $2.6 billion.[10] In September 2009,[11] Silver Lake, Andreessen Horowitz, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board bought 65% of Skype for $1.9 billion from eBay, valuing the business at $2.92 billion. In May 2011, Microsoft bought Skype for $8.5 billion and used it to replace their Windows Live Messenger. As of 2011, most of the development team and 44% of all the division's employees were in Tallinn and Tartu, Estonia.[12][13][14]
Skype originally featured a hybrid peer-to-peer and client–server system.[15] It became entirely powered by Microsoft-operated supernodes in May 2012;[16] in 2017, it changed from a peer-to-peer service to a centralized Azure-based service. As of February 2023, it was used by 36 million people each day.[17]
In February 2025, Microsoft announced the shutdown of Skype on 5 May in favor of its Microsoft Teams service.[18] Skype was founded in 2003 by Niklas Zennström, from Sweden, and Janus Friis, from Denmark.[21] The software was created by Estonians Ahti Heinla, Priit Kasesalu, Jaan Tallinn, and Toivo Annus.[22] Friis and Annus are credited with the idea of reducing the cost of voice calls by using a P2P protocol like that of Kazaa.[23] An early alpha version was created and tested in spring 2003, and the first public beta version was released on 29 August 2003.[24][23]
In June 2005, Skype entered an agreement with Polish web portal Onet.pl for an integrated offering on the Polish market.[25] On 12 September 2005, eBay Inc. agreed to acquire Luxembourg-based Skype Technologies SA for approximately US$2.5 billion in up-front cash and eBay stock, plus potential performance-based consideration.[26] On 1 September 2009, eBay announced it was selling 65% of Skype to Silver Lake, Andreessen Horowitz, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board for US$1.9 billion, valuing Skype at US$2.75 billion.[27] On 14 July 2011, Skype partnered with Comcast to bring its video chat service to Comcast subscribers via HDTV sets.[28]
On 17 June 2013, Skype released a free video messaging services for Windows, Mac OS, iOS, iPadOS, Android, and BlackBerry.[29]
Between 2017 and 2020, Skype collaborated with PayPal to provide a money-send feature, enabling users to transfer funds via the Skype mobile app in the middle of a conversation.[30]
In 2019, Skype was declared the sixth most-downloaded mobile app of the decade, from 2010 to 2019.[31] Registered users of Skype are identified by a unique Skype ID and may be listed in the Skype directory under a Skype username.[60] Skype allows these registered users to communicate through both instant messaging and voice chat. Voice chat allows telephone calls between pairs of users and conference calling and uses proprietary audio codec. Skype's text chat client allows group chats, emoticons, storing chat history, and editing of previous messages. Offline messages were implemented in a beta build of version 5 but removed after a few weeks without notification. The usual features familiar to instant messaging users—user profiles, online status indicators, and so on—are also included.
The Online Number, a.k.a. SkypeIn, service allows Skype users to receive calls on their computers dialed by conventional phone subscribers to a local Skype phone number; local numbers are available for Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, Nepal, New Zealand, Poland, Romania, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States.[61][62] A Skype user can have local numbers in any of these countries, with calls to the number charged at the same rate as calls to fixed lines in the country.
Skype supports conference calls, video chats, and screen sharing between 25 people at a time for free,[63] which then increased to 50 on 5 April 2019.[64]
Skype does not provide the ability to call emergency numbers, such as 112 in Europe, 911 in North America, 999 in the UK or 100 in India and Nepal.[65] However, as of December 2012, there is limited support for emergency calls in the United Kingdom, Australia, Denmark, and Finland.[66] The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has ruled that, for the purposes of section 255 of the Telecommunications Act, Skype is not an "interconnected VoIP provider".[67] As a result, the U.S. National Emergency Number Association recommends that all VoIP users have an analog line available as a backup.[68]
In 2019, Skype added an option to blur the background in a video chat interface using AI algorithms purely done using software, despite a depth-sensing camera not being present in most webcams.[69]
In 2023, Skype added the Bing AI chatbot to the platform for users who had access to the chatbot.[70]