Skype Claims It Has Positively Influenced Microsoft Thanks to Its Consumer-Shaped Approach

Skype has become a key product for Microsoft’s long-term strategy, becoming not only a much more powerful VoIP platform, but also the default messaging client in Windows 8.1 and a major feature of the upcoming Xbox One gaming console.

The product has clearly influenced Microsoft’s businesses since the 2011 acquisition, with company officials now bragging about paying particular attention to the consumer market. Unlike Microsoft, which has been trying to tackle both consumer and business markets, that is.

Karlheinz Wurm, general manager of product and test for Skype, told TechRadar in an interview that the Skype acquisition had a positive impact on Microsoft, as the Redmond-based giant got access to a fresh concept and “different way of thinking.”

“Skype has been very consumer-focused while Microsoft in the past ten years has been focusing on both but, for sure, very heavily targeting enterprise. Skype has very positively influenced the rest of Microsoft with this freshness, with this different way of thinking,” Wurm explained.

At the same time, Skype is also part of Redmond’s One Microsoft transformation, especially because it wants to become a consumer-shaped company that listens to user feedback.

“I think we've been influencing them positively in thinking about the consumer and how consumers think and what their needs are,” said Wurm. “Microsoft was more closed five years ago than it is now. Part of it is also that Skype is cross-platform and that opens up more conversations.”

While Skype has clearly evolved a lot lately to become a stand-alone platform with lots of users all over the world, it’s also the cause of intense criticism aimed at the Redmond giant lately.

Leaked information that reached the web as part of the PRISM scandal indicated that Microsoft might have used Skype to wiretap user conversations and provide the NSA and other intelligence agencies with access to accounts and other private data.

Redmond has always denied all accusations, explaining that the company only complies with federal requests asking for specific user account information.