How Skype blew a 10-year lead to Zoom

How Skype blew a 10-year lead to Zoom

Video calls have become an essential component of the workday. You can strike up a conversation with anyone in the world with just a few clicks. Sales pitches, webinars, team meetings… imagine if video calls didn’t exist and you had to communicate strictly through email…

Fortunately you don’t, and whether it’s WebEx, Google, or Microsoft I’m sure virtual communication is in your day-to-day. But one company seems to be more prevalent than the rest.

Zoom dominates nearly half of the videoconferencing market. In the past few years you’ve had a Zoom happy hour, watched a Zoom reunion, and definitely suffered from Zoom fatigue. So why does Zoom get the biggest piece of the pie?

At the beginning of 2020, Skype controlled 32.4% of the market compared to Zoom’s 26.4%. But, by the following year, Skype dropped to only 6.6%.

In such an opportune moment for this industry, where did Skype go wrong? And what did Zoom get so right? In this video we’ll walk through how the industry was formed, the early pioneers, and how Zoom capitalized on the mistakes of Skype.

00:00 Introduction
01:23 Background
03:32 Early Leaders
05:33 Reasons for Success
08:14 Summary

[garydauphin]

I think one point was not really touched on very well, I call it "What party are my friend's all going to?"

Prior to Zoom, I used WebEx, Skype and Google, and they all worked better-than-ok for the most part. But once my clients, my university and my major employer all moved to Zoom for reasons you discussed here, I really had no choice.... it wasn't like I was going to look for a hack to make Skype work with a Zoom call, so I switched too.

[terenceokane]

Great video! Really well produced. I had never heard of zoom until late 2019 when the sanders campaign in the US used it with their volunteers. Months later it was one of the most talked about applications imaginable. Perfectly poised and ready to step in when the moment came.

[Paullife]

I love the "Tech TV" young Kevin Rose clip at 3:42 Good times

[SlackerStuff]

Hope y'all enjoy the video. Happy to answer any behind the scenes quesions!

[Khanti]

Great documentary! Very insightful. Keep up the good work!👍

[Watch_over_us]

Meanwhile discord being superior to all of them

[jodenclash]

Hey this is a great video! should have more views!

[fictionaddiction]

Wait I don't get it... Skype was free but zoom offers 1 hr + pay a subscription and it's more successful?

[paddlestudios]

Is your old username better than benjaminskywalker94? We doubt it

[Gaurav-_-]

This video contains a lot of misinformation. The main reason for Skype's downfall was constant redesigns, not frequent but CONSTANT. Windows has the same problem but it's an abusive monopoly platform with no competition.