[aa-jv]

Skype was an intelligence-gathering platform with very few equals. In the era that Skype was producing unicorn horns, surveillance capitalism was on a rocket ride.

I doubt those same conditions would allow for multiple unicorn horns in the modern era. You can't build a Skype-like surveillance network now; that horse has left the barn.

[colmmacc]

At its height Skype made its money in surprising ways. There was a margin on Skype credits, which paid for calls into the regular phone system. But there was much more money in brand licensing. Time was you could buy not just "Skype certified" headsets, cameras, but even non-telephony gear like USB thumb drives. SanDisk carried those for years and I presume they out-sold the alternatives enough to be worth the licensing.

It always amazed me. What did Skype have to say about a Thumb Drive. But the brand had a lot of trust. A lot of people appreciated how simple and reliable it was, and the fun blue interface was very comforting.

On the surveillance side, it was rumored that Microsoft bought Skype in part to do a solid for the US DOJ. DOJ would get a cooperative partner for lawful interception / metadata, while Microsoft might get some relief from their anti-trust woes. But all of the principals I've ever spoken to deny this as a motivation and nothing has come out over the years to contradict that.

I do recall Microsoft putting Skype in their ads org for a long time, but not much seemed to come from that either.

[jgalt212]

> But the brand had a lot of trust.

Not for me. I always regarded it as one giant security hole in an era when Windows was riddled with them.

[westmeal]

What about discord?

[aa-jv]

What about it? Nobody is going to buy it for billions of dollars, as has happened to Skype.

You can still do surveillance capitalism - its just not as valuable as it used to be ..

[mid-kid]

What are you talking about? Technology is as widespread as ever and chances to use AI for more effective surveillance and manipulation are through the roof.

[aa-jv]

We are in the mid-stages of all of this, now. Skype was at the forefront.

Surveillance capitalism today doesn't produce the same returns now that it did in 2005/7 ... there are a lot more players and a lot more work to be done to become a viable operation.

Besides which, the weaponisation of such surveillance networks is out in the open and there is a lot more resistance - for example, in Europe - to the idea of having this form of integration into the telecommunication networks of states.