Amazon concedes that Chime SDK makes far more sense than the Chime application itself

Amazon’s announcement on Wednesday that it is abandoning its Chime collaboration app, while stressing that it will double down on the far more successful Chime software development kit (SDK), was an example of Amazon being Amazon. It knows what it does well, and where to focus.

Analysts said that the Chime app made some sense when it was introduced in February 2017, but that sharply changed in 2000 when the pandemic hit. Microsoft and Zoom added lots of new functionality to their collaboration platforms, but Amazon didn’t add much to Chime. And over the years, rivals have continued to beef up their products. 

Chime’s feature set quickly was outshone and its market share plunged; currently its share is negligible, with one firm placing it at literally 0.0%. 

Amazon itself described its Chime app market share as “limited,” and conceded that its competitors, which it referred to as partners, had outpaced it.