The Lessons Of Skype’s Unnecessary Failure
Microsoft is finally putting Skype out of its misery. The app will be permanently shuttered this May and whatever salvageable assets it has will be ported over to Teams.
This will go into the annals of business history as perhaps the most egregious case of missed opportunity ever.
If you rewind your minds to 2020 and the early days of the pandemic, Skype was far and away the most popular and best-known video conferencing app. Actor friends of mine often used it for auditions, and I had an account that I used to talk to clients in Europe and Asia. It was owned by Microsoft, so there was, shall we say, some money behind it for updates and security protocols.
Zoom was a largely unknown start-up video conferencing app that was in the right place at the right time with the right features.
There is a book to be written about this, but top-line, there were a number of reasons Skype failed and Zoom succeeded.
Zoom made access easy: unlike Skype you didn't need an account to join a call
Zoom could handle large groups and was stable, Skype was designed for smaller groups
Zoom made everything easy--just one click to join or schedule a call. Skype had a complicated log-in system via Microsoft and the "tech unsavvy" (and even the fairly tech savvy) struggled with it.
Zoom only did one thing, making the interface easy to navigate. Skype did a whole host of things, making it difficult to find anything.
Microsoft was focused on Teams and Skype was sort of the red-headed stepchild and Microsoft did not do much to support it during the pandemic
Zoom had a great "free" model that allowed for 40 minute calls of up to 100 people-that then led to many people purchasing Zoom accounts. Skype had a free model, but not nearly as generous.
Which is why "Zoom" became both a verb and a successful company, while "Skype", which had been a verb in the 00s and 10s, is being shut down.
A good lesson for all businesses:
Remain customer-focused and don't try and do too many things at once.
Adapt to changing market conditions--don't try and make them adapt to you.
