Skype, which was recently sold by eBay to VC firms Silver Lake Partners, Andreessen Horowitz and Index Ventures, has announced that it is killing its Developer Program. The program, called “Extras,” allows third-party developers to build applications, both hardware and software, on top of Skype.
The company, which was valued at $2.75 billion during the deal, says that the program wasn’t gaining much traction amongst the developer community to maintain the “Extras” platform, which was launched in June of 2007. According to a blog post on the company’s site, Skype will no longer certify new applications but existing applications will be able to work until their expiration dates.
Skype also said that it will continue to support accessories via its public API, and the Skype shop will feature existing “Extras.” It’s always a sad day when a tech company as large as Skype cuts out the developer ecosystem. Third-party developers are a crucial part of any product, and it’s a shame that Skype couldn’t figure out a efficient way to engage developers. However, there is a small light at the end of the tunnel. Skype ended the announcement with this line: “We still believe there are opportunities for third-party developers to enhance the Skype experience. We’ll keep you posted.”
You lie !!!!!!
So other third party developers (App store? Facebook?) may have to protect yourself from similar decisions made by multinational companies.
Wrong way, Skype.
Incredibly bad decision. I’m the CEO of a company that publishes a Skype Extra (Cucku Backup – you’ve covered us in the past). Not only have they killed the program, but they notified developers *the same morning* that the announcement was made public. The Extras program was plagued by poor visibility in the client and too many steps to install. There was a real opportunity to learn from Apple and streamline rather than just pulling the plug.
I agree. Why would they go this route when facebook and apple have shown the benefits of a developer ecosystem? The program was severely mismanaged from the start and users had to hunt to find any extra apps. It’s just a decision that doesn’t make any sense.
Think Skype is in dilemma whether to support extras or to shutdown it. No one can pretend twist in software field. Skype is afraid to lose the available developers strongly., so it gives out the statement; We still believe there are opportunities for third-party developers to enhance the Skype experience. We’ll keep you posted
They’ll be back with better 3rd party support. They’re just axing this set of APIs.
I have a suspicion that someone is trying to get rid of the competition. Didn’t Russia planned to make skype illegal?
Are they trying to kill the business? This is quite confusing with Google knocking on their door with Google Voice about to go public for free.
Exactly why services like Gizmo should be adopted over closed Skype at every turn.
Gizmo is cross platform, too– Windows, Mac, and Linux, so you don’t have to worry about your face melting and angels singing in terror.
gizmo sucks so badly. i really wanted to switch over to them, but quality and cussup was so bad, couldn’t do it.
In Soviet Russia, Skype develops YOU!