45K developers are using Microsoft Bot Framework to make bots for Skype and other chat platforms, while 34K developers are making bots for Facebook Messenger
Khari Johnson / VentureBeat :
Context & Ripple Effects
Seven months after Facebook counted barely 10,000 bot developers on Messenger — a figure built on January's SDK access and April's machine-learning Bot Engine — Microsoft claims a larger builder base. The gap is notable because Microsoft got there with a framework that spans platforms: its July Skype bot update added group support plus Slack and Facebook connectors, so one codebase can target multiple chat networks.
That structure explains why the smaller-reach player can lead on developers: Microsoft is selling write-once distribution across Skype, Slack, and Messenger itself, while Facebook's tooling locks bots into a single network. The October counts are the first direct scoreboard between the two stacks.
First-order effects
- Microsoft's Bot Framework, at 45K developers against Messenger's 34K, has overtaken the platform that opened bot development first — despite Facebook's five-month head start.
- Developers choosing a stack now weigh cross-platform reach over raw audience size, since Microsoft's connectors let the same bot serve Skype, Slack, and Facebook users.
Second-order effects
- Facebook faces pressure to answer with equivalent multi-platform or richer tooling — analytics it already promised in May become table stakes if its developer count keeps trailing.
- Slake's inclusion in Microsoft's connector list pulls enterprise chat into the same bot economy, giving Microsoft a distribution argument Facebook cannot match inside Messenger alone.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, messaging platforms compete as developer platforms — the contest shifting from who has the most users to whose toolkit makes bots cheapest to build and maintain everywhere.
- A durable cross-platform bot layer would position conversational interfaces as a work surface in their own right, independent of any single chat app's fortunes.
The trend: Messaging platforms are competing for developer mindshare through cross-platform toolkits rather than user-base size, turning chatbots into a portable software layer.