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slashdot
feeds.twtxt.net
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Microsoft Teams Surpasses 270 Million Monthly Active Users
Microsoft's Teams communications and collaboration platform topped 270 million monthly active users in the December quarter, continuing to add users but at a much slower pace than in the initial months of the pandemic. From a report: Satya Nadella, the Microsoft CEO, revealed the latest number Tuesday afternoon in conjunction with the company's quarterly earnings ... ⌘ Read more
david
netbros.com
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The fact, even if not fully accurate to the dot, that Teams has that many (270M monthly active) users made me shiver. I wouldn't be using it if I had a choice; alas, I got none. So, I guess with those numbers, and the company's quarterly earnings, Nadella's saying that Microsoft "state of the union" is "strong".
prologic
twtxt.net
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@david But Microsoft Teams is so garbage! 😱 How do they even have a Million MAU 😳 Let alone 270+ 🤦‍♂️
prologic
twtxt.net
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@david But Microsoft Teams is so garbage! 😱 How do they even have a Million MAU 😳 Let alone 270+ 🤦‍♂️
thecanine
twtxt.net
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@prologic I bet those numbers are a combination of users forced to use it (like myself) and people accidentally clicking on the new Teams thing that comes pre-installed in Windows 11 and pre-pinned to the task bar, in a way that's not that easy to get rid of.

I've definitely never seen anyone using it out of their own free will. 😂
david
netbros.com
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@thecanine the numbers are on the enterprise usage. Through their market penetration, Microsoft offers deals that are hard to pass, or makes product adoption a vital piece to grant licensing to other products, thus “bundling” them in a “sweet” deal, making it hard—if not impossible—to pass.
prologic
twtxt.net
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@david The "impossible" to "pass up" here I _believe_ is various rumours around the place that Microsoft _actually_ offer their products at a -ve dollar value just to win a contract and licensing deal. I don't know how true this is as I have no direct evidence, but if true, this has to be illegal and at worst "antitrust" and "anti-competitive behaviour".
prologic
twtxt.net
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@david The "impossible" to "pass up" here I _believe_ is various rumours around the place that Microsoft _actually_ offer their products at a -ve dollar value just to win a contract and licensing deal. I don't know how true this is as I have no direct evidence, but if true, this has to be illegal and at worst "antitrust" and "anti-competitive behaviour".
thecanine
twtxt.net
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@prologic @david I'm not the guy making these kinds of decisions, but I was able to speak to two people who were in those positions last year (the positions to help decide what will be used in their institution).

Person A was from my university and told me Microsoft provided Teams for no additional cost, as they are part of Microsofts 365 plan that the university chose, but also said that the plan as a whole is insanely expensive compared to what others charge for similar services, so if the decision was only on him, he would have made a different decision.

Person B works for a private company and his story was similar. Because of Microsofts high prices their company went with Zoho, as their alternative to Microsoft 365, which also includes some alternative to Teams in their plan, however it was not good enough to cover all their needs, so they bought some Zoom licenses on top of that, which they said was the cheapest conferencing program that met the needs the company had and the price of the two combined still wasn't even close to what they'd have to pay for Microsofts services.

Both people and a few others also pointed out that Google was also offering very cheap alternatives and some of their conferencing options were even free, if the conferences didn't exceed some time and the limit of 100 participants.

All these people agreed, that Microsofts services were the most expensive, though I assume kinda "necessary" for some, as they include many other useful tools, like the license for downloadable Office apps for everyone, email solutions and the option to archive important conferences and share them (internally) through Microsoft Streams.