Hangouts, Teams, Slack and Zoom. COVID-19 stimulates growth of video conferencing platforms

The social isolation and quarantines imposed in several countries due to COVID-19 have had a great impact in increasing the use of videoconferencing services. With teleworking becoming a reality for many people, platforms that allow teams or friends and family staying in touch has been the option.

There are many alternatives, which we have seen in SAPO TEK, but Hangouts Meet, Microsoft Teams, Slack and Zoom are the ones that have the greatest expression.

Although some companies do not disclose numbers of users, the truth is that the COVID-19 pandemic has led to the growth of the four platforms. Zoom is perhaps the most successful case, after the platform gained more users in 2020 in February than it did throughout last year. Slack announced this week that it broke the record for the largest number of online users, simultaneously, on its communication platform.

Hangouts Meet

Even without specific numbers of users having been released, it is known that the Hangouts Meet platform, similar to Google Hangouts but for companies, in the last two weeks has seen an increase in daily meetings of 60%. In the March 31 publication, Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian ensured that the daily use of the platform is 25 times higher than in January this year.

Microsoft Teams

On March 19, Microsoft revealed that Microsoft Teams gained more than 12 million users in a week. The 44 million members generated 900 minutes of online meetings in just seven days, he reveals. The number symbolizes a growth of 37.5% since March 11, when it was around 32 million users. Altogether, the number of members of the platform has more than doubled since November 2019, when they registered 20 million, which can help explain the fact that the platform has been down in Europe for a few hours on 16 March.

Slack

Slack recorded a record on March 25. Altogether there were 12.5 million users online at the same time. The number had already been in the tens of millions twice in the past month, namely on the 10th, with 10 million users, and on the 16th, with 10.5 million. The platform's record had been set last October, when it reached 12 million.

zoom

According to the latest data available, released by CNBC on February 26, the Zoom platform has already gained more users in 2020 than it did over the past year. This year's information that the platform has 12.92 million active users, 21% more than at the end of 2019.

When working from home, extra care is needed when it comes to ensuring safety. Although it no longer does so, the iOS version of the Zoom platform, for example, was accused of transferring user data to Facebook.

See also other alternatives in the applications that allow you to keep video calls with several users at the same time.