Zoom’s Success During the Pandemic Came at Skype’s Expense

As Zoom was becoming the most popular video-call platform in the world, Skype was busy losing its market share over the course of a year.

By Jason Cohen

Remote work has changed dramatically over the past year, and the platforms we use for collaborating have changed with it. Believe it or not, Skype was the most popular video call platform at the beginning of 2020. Now we’re all on Zoom.

EmailToolTester has the data to show that, before the pandemic, Skype owned a commanding 32.4% of the market in 2020 before losing 25.8% of its market share in a single year. Zoom grew 22.3% and Google Meet grew 20.2% in that same time.

Now Zoom owns about half of the world market, including many major markets including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Japan, Russia, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Google Meet has done well in India and southeast Asia, while Microsoft Teams is leading in mid-market countries including Poland, South Africa, and Turkey.

Zoom’s meteoric rise can be attributed to the company’s free service tier, but Microsoft also played a role by allowing Skype to lose users, even while continuing to bundle it with Windows. Microsoft has also clearly shifted focus now that Teams has reached 14.5% market share in 2021.

Those still predominantly using Skype make up just 6.6% of the total market, which is now projected to be worth $10.92 billion by 2027.

Originally published at https://www.pcmag.com.