Microsoft Corp. and Slack Technologies Inc. today divulged growth figures for their team collaboration services that provide a new indicator of just how fast teleworking is rising amid the coronavirus pandemic.

In the past seven days, Microsoft Teams has gained no fewer than 12 million active daily users. The service now counts 44 million active users in total, more than double the 20 million it had last November.

Microsoft released the figures to coincide with the third anniversary of Teams, which it launched in 2017 as a response to Slack’s rapid ascent in the workplace. One of Teams’ big differentiators at the competitive level is that the service comes bundled with Microsoft’s ubiquitous Office 365 suite. The company has pressed its advantage to drive adoption of Teams at 93 of the firms on the Fortune 100 and win more than 20 enterprise deals that involve more than 100,000 users.

Despite the competition, Slack has also been able to seize on the recent surge in demand for collaboration tools. The company said in a regulatory filing today that its paid installed base grew by 7,000 customers from Feb. 1 to March 17. For perspective, the company added approximately 5,000 paying customers in its most recent quarter.

Both providers also announced new features this week. Microsoft has unveiled a number of upcoming enhancements to Teams alongside the growth figures, including a background noise filter and a “raise hand” button to help users jump into a conversation more easily. Slack earlier released a major interface overhaul described as its biggest redesign to date.

Other players in the collaboration market are being affected by the shift to teleworking as well. Cisco Systems Inc. divulged this week that its Webex video conferencing platform processed 5.5 billion meeting minutes during the first 11 days of March, with activity eclipsing 3.2 million meetings per day by this Monday. Rival Zoom Video Communications Inc. is believed to have added more new users since the start of 2020 than during all of 2019. 

Image: Microsoft