RIP Skype Extras: P2P Firm Kills Developer Program

Skype on Friday killed, slayed, totally did away with, its two-year-old third-party applications development platform.

This from the peer-to-peer VoIP provider that has more than 400 million subscribers but that can’t seem to figure out what developers could do for its growth.

Skype Extras was an API-based program. One of the applications someone made, for example, was integrating Skype with Microsoft Outlook. Skype said it will continue to sell current Extras until they expire but, as of Dec. 11, it will “no longer allow the use of Skype credit by 3rd Party Extras developers.”

Tech blogger Om Malik has this to say about that last statement: ‘What does that mean? That if you’re a developer, you have no reason to believe Skype will do the right thing, even with the new management (and ownership) structure.’

Earlier this month, Skype owner eBay Inc. sold the P2P company for quite a bit less than it paid for it in 2005.