Microsoft says Teams has 75M+ DAUs, up from 44M in mid-March, a 70% increase, and attributes the growth to COVID-19
The coronavirus pandemic is juicing up numbers for remote work and learning. Microsoft's fiscal Q3 2020 earnings call kicked off with CEO Satya Nadella sharing a slew of numbers.
VentureBeat Emil Protalinski
Context & Ripple Effects
Teams' growth curve was already steep before the pandemic: Microsoft claimed 20M daily active users in November 2019, up from 13M in July, a lead it held over Slack's reported 12M. What changed by late April is the slope — usage records like 2.7B daily meeting minutes, triple mid-March levels, translated into 75M+ DAUs on the fiscal Q3 call, with Satya Nadella putting COVID-19 at the center of the story.
The significance is that this wasn't a one-quarter spike: Microsoft went on to report 115M DAUs by October 2020 and 145M a year after this article, meaning the pandemic cohort largely stuck. This earnings-call moment is where crisis adoption first showed up as a durable competitive moat rather than a temporary surge.
First-order effects
- Teams nearly doubled its user base in about six weeks (44M to 75M+ DAUs), giving Microsoft a headline metric to open its fiscal Q3 earnings call and evidence that remote work and learning are now primary usage cases, not side features.
Second-order effects
- Slack, which had already seen its stock fall on Microsoft's November 2019 DAU claims, faces an incumbent that converts Office 365 distribution into free collaboration seats at pandemic speed — pressuring Slack's pricing, enterprise sales pitch, and investor narrative simultaneously.
Third-order effects
- If the retained-growth pattern holds (as the later 115M and 145M readings suggest), workplace chat consolidates around platform vendors who bundle messaging with productivity suites, turning DAU counts into the industry's de facto competitive scoreboard and squeezing standalone tools into niche or acquisition outcomes.
The trend: Enterprise collaboration is consolidating around suite incumbents, with crisis-driven adoption converting into permanent share for whoever owns the productivity bundle.
Related: Microsoft · Teams · Teams claims 20M DAUs, extending lead over Slack · Teams passes 115M DAUs in Q1 · Teams hits 145M DAUs with Dynamics 365 integrations
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Discussion
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@tomwarren
Tom Warren
on x
Zoom has been lying about its daily active users. The company said it had “more than 300 million daily users,” earlier this month, and it has quietly deleted the references. It's 300 million meeting participants, and Microsoft is now at 200 million https://www.theverge.com/...
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@richlightshed
Rich Greenfield
on x
Facebook added 5 million Daily Active Users (DAUs) domestically in Q1 2020, that is the highest sequential growth in DAUs since Q3 2011 195 daily active users of Facebook (Blue) in Q1 2020, does not include Instagram #NUTS #COVID19 $FB https://twitter.com/...
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@benbajarin
Ben Bajarin
on x
MS Teams has no doubt seen tremendous growth. According to our research, Teams is the second most used video meeting platform after Zoom. Teams is also in our list of top 10 daily apps used for collaboration via our research study. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
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@jowens510
Jeremy C. Owens
on x
Earlier in the pandemic, it was Microsoft with an erroneous usage stat it had to correct - a claim that Azure usage spiked 775% was changed to Teams traffic specifically in one area of Italy. https://www.marketwatch.com/ ... $MSFT filed an 8-K, will Zoom? https://twitter.com/...
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@sarthakgh
Sar Haribhakti
on x
“Daily meeting participants counts multiple meetings, so if you have five Zoom or Teams meetings in a day, then you're counted five times. Zoom has not yet revealed exact daily active user counts & it looks like Microsoft could be a lot closer to Zoom usage than many had assumed”…
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@scottvanvliet
Scott Van Vliet
on x
Incredible numbers to share! 75M unique daily active users, 200M daily meeting particpants, and 4.1B daily meeting minutes. The future of work and learning is remote, and @MicrosoftTeams is here to help #remotework #workfromhome #microsofteams https://venturebeat.com/...
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@sameerpatel
Sameer Patel
on x
Im really digging @MicrosoftTeams. And once again , integration is a moat you can build even after the enemy had infiltrated the customer compound. https://twitter.com/...
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@tomwarren
Tom Warren
on x
Microsoft just revealed it has 75 million Microsoft Teams daily active users. That's a 70 percent jump in a month, and importantly it has 200 million daily meeting participants. That's closer to Zoom's 300 million daily participants. Details here: https://www.theverge.com/... htt…
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@ldrogen
Leigh Drogen
on x
Between Microsoft, Google and Zoom, about 12% of the entire planet is meeting virtually now on a daily basis Holy shit https://twitter.com/...
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@davidmcj
David McJannet
on x
Congrats to team Azure: up 59% despite the macro. All signs indicate cloud adoption will accelerate from here precisely because of the macro. https://www.cnbc.com/...
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@epro
Emil Protalinski
on x
Will @SlackHQ share an updated number now that @MicrosoftTeams is absolutely dwarfing it? https://venturebeat.com/...
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@jeffteper
Jeff Teper
on x
Thank you #MicrosoftTeams customers - 75M Daily Unique Users, 200M Daily Meeting Participants, 4.1B Daily Minutes - https://venturebeat.com/... via @VentureBeat
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@epro
Emil Protalinski
on x
$MSFT Azure revenue growth - Q1 2018: 90% - Q2 2018: 98% - Q3 2018: 93% - Q4 2018: 89% - Q1 2019: 76% - Q2 2019: 76% - Q3 2019: 73% - Q4 2019: 64% - Q1 2020: 59% - Q2 2020: 62% - Q3 2020: 59% https://venturebeat.com/...
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@microsoft
@microsoft
on x
Read the full Microsoft's Q3 Earnings Release here: https://www.microsoft.com/... Note about Forward-Looking Statements in earnings tweets: https://view.officeapps.live.com/ ...
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@deltagaj
Drew Johnston
on x
On the earnings call, Microsoft shared that Xbox Live now has nearly 90 million monthly active users, Xbox Game Pass has more than 10 million subscribers, and Project xCloud has hundreds of thousands of active users in preview across seven countries. https://venturebeat.com/...
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@aaronbuley
Aaron Buley
on x
📈👀 I see you $MSFT. Earnings reads like WFH and LFH revenue not fully realized in this quarter. Expect to see more upside in the next Q? Probably. https://twitter.com/...
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@patrickmoorhead
Patrick Moorhead
on x
Not surprised Microsoft had such a good Q3. $MSFT primarily a BtoB *required* purchase, not *discretionary* consumer spend or advertising play, pegged to consumer. Company actually helping with W/S/GFH, cloud expansion, immediate digital transformation. https://www.microsoft.com/…
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@bdsams
Brad Sams
on x
Teams has 75 million DAU Zoom has 200 million but all of Teams are paying users.
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@fxshaw
Frank X. Shaw
on x
We have more datacenter regions than any other cloud provider - and this quarter we announced new regions in Mexico and Spain.
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@fxshaw
Frank X. Shaw
on x
We are the only cloud that extends to the edge, with consistency across operating models, development environments, and infrastructure stack.
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@levynews
Ari Levy
on x
Big Tech thus far holding up remarkably well: *Google, Facebook - say ad prices are strengthening after a steep drop in March *Microsoft - says covid-19 has had ‘minimal’ impact on revenue *Microsoft stock within 5% of its all-time high https://www.cnbc.com/...
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@epro
Emil Protalinski
on x
$MSFT Q3 2020: - Azure up 59% - Surface up 1% - LinkedIn up 21% - Windows Commercial up 17% - Gaming down 1% https://venturebeat.com/...
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@jowens510
Jeremy C. Owens
on x
LOL, Microsoft trying to get me to join their earnings call on Teams. That's a first.
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@benbajarin
Ben Bajarin
on x
That is a lot of ⬆️ https://twitter.com/...
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@markhachman
Mark Hachman
on x
Microsoft reports a profit of $10.75B, up 22 percent from a year ago,($1.40 EPS) on revenue of $35.0 billion, up 15%. Analysts polled by Yahoo Finance expected earnings of $1.26 on revenue of $33.66B.
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@bdsams
Brad Sams
on x
O365 commercial saw seats grow by 20%
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@microsoft
@microsoft
on x
THREAD: $MSFT Q3 EARNINGS Revenue: $35.0 billion ⬆️ 15% Operating income: $13.0 billion ⬆️ 25% Net Income: $10.8 billion ⬆️ 22% EPS: $1.40 ⬆ 23%
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@bdsams
Brad Sams
on x
Surface revenue was just about flat which doesn't seem great, until you consider the supply chain disruption that has occurred.
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@bdsams
Brad Sams
on x
Net income was $10.8 billion and increased 22%
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@bdsams
Brad Sams
on x
Productivity and Business Processes was $11.7 billion and increased 15%
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@bdsams
Brad Sams
on x
Surface revenue increased 1%
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@bdsams
Brad Sams
on x
Revenue was $35.0 billion and increased 15%
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@bdsams
Brad Sams
on x
Xbox content and services revenue increased 2%