"The Rise and Fall of Skype": "Microsoft bought them around, 02/2011. And then that's when some stuff started going south, and then new features were updated, and some issues started to happen. And that's why, they're out of business now." - Izzy Dadoksy

We talk about THE topic that many of us might have wondered about but never really explored—the death of Skype.

Once the pioneering force in video calling, Skype now lies in the shadow of modern giants like Zoom and Microsoft Teams. We unpack the journey of Skype from its glory days to its quiet exit, discussing where it all went wrong.

Was it the lack of innovation, the acquisition by Microsoft, or a failure in branding and positioning?

We don't just stop at analysis; we explore critical lessons for small businesses on how to avoid a similar fate. From the importance of adaptation to leveraging customer feedback, we share insights on maintaining a strong brand presence in an ever-evolving market.

Hot Moments

00:00 "Skype's Decline Amid Rising Alternatives"

05:06 Skype's Missed Pandemic Boom Opportunity

10:52 Blockbuster's Missed Streaming Opportunity

14:22 Missed Opportunities in Video Marketing

16:33 "AI-Driven Marketing Innovation"

19:14 Audience Feedback and Brand Alignment

22:36 Avoiding Market Aging Pitfalls

Hot Takeaways

• Adapt or Die: The ability to adapt is crucial. Skype's failure to update and innovate allowed competitors like Zoom and Microsoft Teams to overtake them. Always be ready to pivot and embrace change.
• Consistent Branding Matters: Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype led to brand confusion between Skype and Microsoft Teams. Ensuring your brand has a clear and consistent identity is vital for long-term success.
• Listen and Innovate: Listening to your audience and acting on their feedback can set you apart. Don’t just rely on what worked in the past; look forward and find the gaps where you can provide value.

Stay in touch and get the latest updates by following us on:

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• Rebel Marketing

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Submit your question ahead of time or grab the mic live. It’s bold, it’s unscripted, and it’s built for small businesses ready to grow.

Copyright 2025 Rebel Marketing

Welcome to Market Like It's Hot. In this episode, we're gonna be chatting about Skype. And can we call it, Izzy, a downfall or just, fading away?

Dead.

Okay.

A death. We're

gonna be talking about the death of Skype. And with me today is Izzy Dadoski. Izzy, who are you?

I'm Izzy Dodoski. Yeah. I do everything SEO and technical for Rebel Marketing. So

Yeah. And I guess we should mention that we are coming through from Rebel Marketing. We are based in Columbus, Ohio, and we we focus on businesses that we help with marketing for businesses that have some kind of growth goal or strategy, and we help implement that and accelerate it. Alright. So Izzy, let's dive in. Can you, for anyone who is either too young or has not been, has been living under a rock, what is Skype?

Skype was like one of the first, like, video chat options. It was either that or FaceTime. And I remember when both those came out, and a lot of people used it. And then, you know, COVID happened, but then we got probably, like, 10 more choices. But, yeah, it was at the time I'm not even sure when they first started, but Microsoft bought them around, 02/2011. And then that's when some stuff started going south, and then new features were updated, and some issues started to happen. And that's why, they're out of business now. So Yeah.

But at

a certain point, they did dominate the market. I mean, even I used it years and years ago, when I was first starting the business, I needed to communicate with people across the nation and had no idea how to do that. I started to use Skype. I don't even know if I still have a Skype account. So it came along with FaceTime, we had Skype, and then it was purchased in 02/2011. You put in here for $8,500,000,000 that is quite a hefty that could pay for a few student loans. Where do you think it it really went wrong? You kinda touched on that.

Well, again, just like if we're talking about COVID happening and some different things, I mean, Skype had already kinda been out of the loop by that point. But even for, like, Microsoft acquiring them, Microsoft made Microsoft Teams. So then it's like, why'd you even buy them in the first place? But, the nothing was getting updated on Skype, and there was no features. And it was still just literally what it was when it came out, and no real great upgrades came out with it, that, like, allowed people to keep using the platform, instead of making those switches. So, one, I think I totally forgot about Skype when Zoom and Microsoft Teams and Google chat came out and different things like that. It's what where people started to, like, gravitate towards because they actually had easy sharing options. People were able to join pretty easily without, you know, typing in these, like, long usernames or, long codes to be able to join. And, also, just from, like, a business sense, I feel like Zoom kind of business really took over in that portion because they were always promoting it to be, like, a secure destination to have these types of meetings, but that's where I saw the major problems.

And then with Microsoft buying them, then you needed a Microsoft account, and then you couldn't get back into your old Skype account that you made without having a Microsoft account. And I think that's where that issue really started to come in. So yeah.

Yeah. And then really, you mentioned here in in notes, like, the positioning. Right? So Microsoft purchased them, but then they also had their Teams, available. And it's just like, where did they land between that and Zoom and all of the like, Google Meet, just in not consistent branding and no real marketing.

Yeah. And, also, just like which one would Microsoft rather promote? Microsoft Teams, which has their name in it, or Skype? And I'm I'm assuming they chose to just put all their focus into Teams instead of upgrading, the different issues that were within Skype already. So

Yeah. And so what are some of the lessons? What are some of those things that we can learn as marketers from the mistakes that Skype made or that Microsoft made with Skype? Let let's talk about, like, the the branding and the positioning.

So the issue with Skype is, again, we probably haven't heard about it in forever until we found out it was already going out of business. But why didn't they hit that pandemic boom where everybody was using these types of features? I have no clue because I feel like I didn't even hear about them during that time, and that would have been the perfect time to be promoting your company because you're offering something that everybody needed at that point, but we heard absolutely nothing from Skype. So then new people who were never even in this, like, field were the ones who grew the most or were, like, designing a few years prior where, you know, we were on, like, video calls almost every day. So they took the jump instead, and then they were able to surpass Skype so much where it's like, did you even try? Did you even try during this whole entire thing? So it's it was just bad branding all around. They should have, I think, gone for, like, we were the first ones you trusted type avenue to, like, build that, like, oh, yeah. Skype. Like, we did use that. And then, you know, actually upgrade the features along with that to promise that to these people, but I just didn't see anything.

Yeah. I'd also add that they didn't do much even before the pandemic. And I think that is an issue with some of the businesses where they're kind of just floating, and they think that they don't need to do as much marketing, and then something big happens like a pandemic. And they don't have enough of a following or brand recognition to to do a big push. Like, Zoom already had some kind of recognition, and they were just able to dive all in onto what they already had strategically planned out.

Yeah. And then, also, it's like I think the way that we all think of Skype is, again, like, that first platform we used for video calling, but then I remember it also, like, cutting out all the time. Oh, what did you say? I can't hear you. And it's like you have that customer, like, recognition, but you also have that customer experience that's still sitting there from when we used it, I don't know, twenty years ago. So it's like you have to start making those changes so people aren't going to just associate you with the clunky video call thing that we all tried to use at one point. And we could probably never hear each other in different things like that. And especially during COVID, that would have been the perfect time or even before to solve all these issues because people wanted to use Skype when we didn't have a pandemic happening, and we all we're all sitting in our houses. So I don't know what took them so long or didn't let them adapt.

So

Yeah. I wonder if it had something to do with just being comfortable. And, again, going back to you don't know what kind of pandemic or what could happen, so the businesses now need to stay nimble, I would say. But there if they didn't fix customer experience before the pandemic hit, when as soon as the pandemic hit, then you're trying to figure out which platform is best for you. You're just gonna have a bad taste in your mouth

about Skype and you're probably going to

try one of the millions of other ones that are out there, Zoom seeming to be the one that took over at least from recognition.

Yeah. So You have to adapt. You have to adapt. You have to adapt. You have

to also look forward or or try to figure out strategies of what ifs. Right? Yeah. What if we all have to, like, go remote? Are we does Skype did Skype have the capacity to, take on all of these additional users, right, or companies that were looking for some kind of platform?

Yeah. Yeah. So And they didn't. Go ahead. I said, and they didn't. So Yeah. They did.

So how does failing to adapt I mean, we kinda touched on this, in the market kill can how can it kill even the biggest brands? Is are there other examples that of brands that might be sort of teetering on that edge or that they should probably really look at what Skype did and avoid that?

I'm trying to think of a brand that has died in a similar way.

I I mean, if you think of life they died.

They went away. I was gonna say, like, like, RadioShack.

Yeah. Yeah. RadioShack anything happening? I mean, there is I think as micro businesses and small businesses, we need to look at these big brands because RadioShack could still be considered, you know, for some of our audience, they're still really large. Right? And so when you get into the micro business and or small businesses, it's nobody will realize that you went away because you were so small, but we can still take learnings from this. Just being able to pivot, being able to adapt, listening to the users and what, what they're saying, reviews, how they're ranking you, and then, yeah, being able to innovate quickly.

Or, like, another example, like, Blockbuster or GameStop. Mhmm.

Like Yep.

Netflix used to send videos, and with Blockbuster, you'd go pick up videos. And then if I found out my competitor was coming out with a streaming thing, I would probably also try to jump to do the same thing or something at least similar, where it's making it easy Yeah. For the customer. But they did not do that, and now they're all out of business. But, like, everybody remembers going to Blockbuster, and that, again, was, like, the first experience within that whole world. And then, like, look how much has changed now. And then they got, you know, they didn't they didn't adapt to Yeah. The changes.

So

Well, that also brings a bigger question for small businesses in so let's say you do want to be the net Netflix was the one that started with, hey, we're gonna we're gonna mail you these DVDs, and then now we're gonna start streaming. So do you want to be the follower or do you want to allot, or budget in some time and effort, money into being the first, being innovative, being able to test out different services or or what's that saying? Where if peep if you if Ford would have given people what they wanted, they would have gotten faster horses instead of cars. I totally wonder that. But basically yeah.

At least those.

Yes. I mean, I'm a big big advocate for like testing things, especially as a small business. I know sometimes budgets are strapped or, you know, you might have to spend more time on it, but being able to just test new features or test new recipes if you're a restaurant owner, I don't know, just continue to innovate and test things out so that you're not left behind.

Yeah. And I don't know. Like, Blockbuster could have been the first to do that, or they could have done something completely different. But, like, as a kid, I knew we weren't gonna be watching DVDs the entire time because, I mean, like, what was before that? VHSs and the DVDs and the blueberries came out. It's like there's always gonna be something new. So I think they should've, especially within that industry, known something was probably going to alter that entire industry. So, like, they could've been testing different things. Or since Netflix was the first, like, they could have been one of the top competitors for Netflix if they really did that.

So Mhmm. Yeah. Yeah. So

could Skype have been saved?

Within the past five years? Probably not. But if they they could have been if they had made some changes within. And then also, I don't think getting acquired by Microsoft was the the best idea in hindsight. So it made it a little bit harder. And then, again, people were using it for businesses, schools, different things like that. Probably should've added some more security features to, you know, promise people that that stuff won't, you know, be released. But I don't think so. No.

With with their decisions, I don't think they could've been saved. What do you think?

Yeah. Definitely not five years ago. I think that they're if they would have looked to the future a little bit, maybe about a year before the pandemic, looked or at least looked at their marketing, looked at people reviewing their brand. Maybe they were would have been able to be ready for the onslaught of what was the, fatigue of being on Zoom calls, right, being on, on video calls. And they might have been able to pivot a little bit into that market or perhaps niched into, for example, WhatsApp. They have a a video feature now. Right? I can it's just like FaceTime. They might have been able to figure out a gap in the market where they they might not have been for meetings, but they could have been for something else.

Yeah. Yeah. So what for a

small business who is realizing or fearing this or feeling like, hey, it's starting to feel a little iffy. There there might be some more competitors. There might be other people selling the same widget or a similar solution. What would it look like to have a strong brand revival strategy?

Well, one, recognize that there's a problem. That would be the first. And then two, take an innovative approach so it's slightly different than your competitors. Look at other industries and how they've adjusted in similar situations and, like, what did they do. And the reason I say that is, like, if it's an issue within your industry, like, where you feel like you're going to, like, not be able to keep up. It's happened in so many other industries where it's like you need to take those lessons from other industries or, like, take the way that they handled certain things and then kind of rework it for your own. Because if you just follow what everybody else is doing in your industry, you're probably just gonna be left behind in certain scenarios, but that's what I would say. I don't know.

Do you think the same thing?

Yeah. I mean, we we are in a marketing right? We we're marketing. So things like AI for us, the nice thing or bad thing about us is a lot of the stuff is SaaS or software. And looking at ChatGPT and all the other AI, providers and seeing which one can help us best provide services to our clients. But then looking at gaps of what are all of the marketing agencies doing wrong? Like, what is the biggest complaint about working with a marketing agency, and how can we avoid that? Because we don't wanna be just because everybody else in your niche or in your market or in your industry is doing it that way and doesn't mean that you could have to continue to do it that way either. You can be the best by just filling that one gap, if that makes any sense.

Yeah.

What was that?

I think my phone went off, and I forgot to turn off.

Whatever your whatever your cooking is done, and I want some.

I'm hoping

for a pie.

Yeah. I wish. There we go. Then that won't happen.

Yeah. The first thing I thought was, like, what are you what are you baking? Lasagna, pie

I can't bake. Cake. Catches on fire. I can cook. I can't bake.

I can supervise.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. So let's say, strong brand revival strategy. What would if you what if you're not even sure, like, are do you need a strategy? Is your brand even going downhill? Like, what is the one of the first things that people should do?

Are you talking about for Skype or small businesses?

Small businesses. Skype's on, so we could say goodbye to them.

Yeah. But I'm saying if they did come back, they could hint on that nostalgia and probably kill. That's first guy but for small businesses, I think it depends on if it fits and if it makes sense. You don't wanna do a whole rebrand if it's not aligning with what the values are still of the company. Really only do it if it makes sense or, like, you've actually thought about it and thought it through. And, yeah, that's the probably the best advice I can give. I don't know what you think.

Yeah. Without getting into industry specifics, I would say go and listen to your audience, to your clients, to people who did not become clients or people who didn't didn't buy from you, survey focus groups. If you have an org if you run an organization, see what people are saying about you, both members and nonmembers. Just take a look at the landscape and see where you stand. What are the complaints? What are the things that you're doing really well? And do all of those align with your mission? And then then you can say, okay. It looks like our brand is is pretty strong, but it also identifies gaps such as let's say it is a membership, perhaps you need to do more in person. Or if it is a membership and people are have given feedback that they can't make it to all of the morning events. Perhaps they become digital or virtual events.

From it could be b two b, it could be e commerce businesses seeing, maybe it's something that's wrong with shipping. People love your product, but it gets there very late. So you can by just listening, you can really learn a lot about where your brand, your business stands, what people think about it, where those gaps are, And then you can celebrate the things that you're doing really well.

Yeah. And I know of a brand who did something and listened to their customers recently. Red Bull, once again. Red Bull.

We need to get we'll just need to every single clip where you mentioned Red Bull, we're gonna have to tag them in it.

Yeah. I'm their biggest fan. But there's been, like, some kind of, like, health wave, I feel like, in the past, like, five months where everybody's just, like, counting their calories and everything. And it's kinda weird, and it's especially, like, within my age group. And everybody's, like, aspartame is, like, from the devil now, and it's gonna give you cancer. I don't know if you've heard this.

Yeah. I heard about it. I don't have the energy to care much anymore.

Yes. See, the beauty of this, though, is I'm allergic to aspartame, so it's awesome. But how are you gonna make a diet drink now without aspartame? So they sweetened it with monk fruit. And let me just say, I have not been able to find my Red Bull Zero in some stores because they're selling out of it because nobody wants to drink the sugar free version anymore with the aspartame. They want the one that's, like, naturally sweetened. And it's great for me because I can't drink it, but it's also a great move for them because I think instead of, like, the zero drinks and the diet drinks that have it in it, they would probably pick that instead. So

I mean, at this point, guys, we've got, like, what, plastic inside of us, the world's on fire.

I don't know.

We we might get hit by an ass story, like, or meteor, whichever one is the correct way to say it. Yeah. I don't know. Like

There's probably cancer in the air, and I'm breathing it up right now. I just I'm not I'm not living my life in too much fear anymore. You know what I'm saying? I just know it's gonna happen at some point. Yep. Yeah.

But yeah. I I guess yeah. Looking at that market and listening to and and it's interesting too because I know I know older folks who do drink Red Bull, But they also were able to identify a market where within a younger group where and what they wanted because maybe the older folks are like, meh. I don't care. Yeah. But, you know, you don't also don't wanna age with your audience. I think a lot of the companies have that issue where they sell a product and they continue to just age with their audience. And guess what? People die.

Yep.

You wanna keep getting you wanna keep getting new people onto whatever product you're selling. So I think that's a pretty good job of Red Bull, listening and and providing a solution. And, also, I have not heard that we are supposed to boycott Red Bull. So good job, Red Bull.

Yeah. Don't boycott Red Bull. They didn't do anything, I don't think. If they do something, then I'll be very disappointed in them, but don't. Their new spring flavor, not that great, though. So,

that's all What is the new spring flavor?

Grapefruit and blossom.

But you don't like grapefruit anyway. Right?

So I know, but it doesn't taste like grapefruit. And that's where I'm getting confused. And what what does blossom taste like? Like, it doesn't taste like flowers. So I'm running into a problem here because I was like, I'll probably hate this, but, like, this one was just like, you know?

I like how you still tried it, though, even though it had the name grapefruit in there.

Well, I had to. I had to, like, you know, give it a chance, but it really does not taste like grapefruit. I don't know what it tastes like.

I don't know. That name just sounds like happiness. And right now it's gloomy, so I'm not sure I would be.

Yeah.

Alright. So, listening to your audience, making sure to watch out for what the heck is happening around you. And I think Skype, man, being ready for not necessarily a pandemic. We don't wanna I don't wanna be negative Nancy. But just making sure that you're prepared. Right? If there is an onslaught of people looking to sign up because now they have to go remote and then they already have a bad taste in their mouth about, the customer experience or calls not dropping, they might not necessarily choose you. So no. Any last words of wisdom, Izzy?

I just want a, like, gravestone inserted in and then Skype on it just, like, dropped right here. And then any words of wisdom, don't don't be a Skype. Don't be a Skype.

Alright. Okay.

Is that good? That's perfect.

Perfect word

of wisdom.

Don't be a Skype.

Don't be a Skype.

Alright. Thank you so much for joining us today. If you have any questions or you want us to figure out if your brand is turning into a Skype, you can go to our website, myrebelmarketing.com. Izzy will take a look at your brand. I'll take a look at it, and then we will be honest about where you stand against, your market and whether you are veering into Skype territory. You can always also connect with us on LinkedIn. And with that, we will see catch you in the next episode. Alright.

Bye bye.