Don't Skype Me: How Microsoft Turned Consumers Against a Beloved Brand

Since buying the internet phone service in 2011, Microsoft has signed up corporations like GE and alienated long-time Skypers.

How Microsoft Turned Customers Against Skype

Lock
This article is for subscribers only.

It's relatively easy these days to find critics of Skype, the popular online calling service that Microsoft acquired in 2011 for $8.5 billion. Former devotees routinely gripe on social media that the software has become too difficult to use. On the Apple App store and Google Play store, negative reviews of the smartphone app are piling up, citing everything from poor call quality to gluttonous battery demand.

In March tech investor and commentator Om Malik summarized the negativity by tweeting that Skype was “a turd of the highest quality” and directing his ire at its owner. “Way to ruin Skype and its experience. I was forced to use it today, but never again.”