NEW DELHI: Microsoft, which had officially acquired Skype in 2011, is taking over Skype’s operations in China from 24 November.

Skype China is still being run by TOM Online - part of Tom Group - a mobile internet company in the country. Skype describes TOM as a majority joint venture partner that helps to provide access to Skype for Chinese customers, “using a modified version that follows Chinese regulations, called TOM-Skype.”

TOM-Skype’s website says that TOM will be handing over Skype to Microsoft on November 24.

In the announcement, it was also revealed that Skype has currently surpassed 100 million users in China.

When Skype turned 10 earlier this year, it announced that the service has helped connect more than 300 million people around the world, letting them talk for more than 1.4 trillion minutes (2.6 million years of conversations). It is not clear if the 300 million figure refers to registered users, but China’s users stand at one-third of the number of people Skype has ever connected.

There is growing usage of messaging apps in China including WeChat, China Telecom’s Yixin and Alibaba’s Laiwang.