Skype Dies. YouTube Thrives – A Tale Of Two Brands

Skype is dead.

Not overnight, but gradually… until now.
Microsoft has officially announced that Skype is being phased out in favor of Microsoft Teams, putting an end to a platform that revolutionized digital communication. 
A platform that, at one point, was synonymous with online calls, bridging continents and breaking down the long-distance barrier.

It’s the end of an era.

It’s wild to think that Microsoft spent $8.5 billion in cash to acquire Skype back in 2011. 
At the time, it was their biggest acquisition ever. 
Before that, Skype had already gone through multiple hands – first bought by eBay in 2005 for $2.6 billion, only to be sold off four years later when it became clear the fit wasn’t right. 
Microsoft swooped in, hoping to integrate Skype into its suite of products and leverage its dominance in the communications space.

What happened?

The world didn’t stop needing video calls.  
Communication platforms exploded (Hello, Covid!). 
Zoom became the de facto meeting space. 
Google Meet and Webex secured their footholds. 
Apple continued pushing FaceTime. 
Meta kept WhatsApp and Messenger thriving. 
Meanwhile, did Microsoft bury Skype while building the Office 365 ecosystem? 

Was Team ever as beloved as the Skype brand?

Skype had everything it needed to stay on top: An established user base, global brand recognition, and years of data that could have been used to train superior audio and video AI models. 
It was the app that made long-distance calling obsolete. 
It was the tool that podcasters, including me, relied on to produce better-quality interviews than most phone lines.
And yet, here we are. 

Meanwhile, in the video wars…

YouTube is now watched more on TVs than on phones.
Think about that for a second.
For years, vertical video and mobile-first content seemed like the inevitable future. 
But here we are with YouTube creators optimizing their content for the big screen. 
Sports, long-form podcasts, and episodic content are thriving. 
The best podcasts today? 
They’re practically TV shows. 
Kids’ content is massive. 
MrBeast has basically built a network that outperforms most cable channels.
Kurt Wilms, a senior product director at YouTube, pointed out that viewers are watching over 1 billion hours of YouTube from their TVs. 

That’s a shift that has major implications for creators, brands and the future of digital media.

This is what Elias Makos and I discussed on CJAD 800 AM. Listen in right here.

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