Facebook’s Workplace reaches 7 mn users, grows 40% as WFH dominates trends

Facebook’s Workplace business software has seen stupendous growth in the pandemic accelerated a remote work trend, the company said Tuesday, as per AFP.  The service has recorded a 40% in a year to reach seven million paying subscribers.

As the pandemic closed offices due to health risks, companies shifted to having employees tend to jobs online when possible. This caused the work-from-home trend. 

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Facebook’s Workspace, building on Microsoft’s team softwares, allows the users – individual and companies – to form an internal social network to communicate with employees. Microsoft has more than 145 million daily active users, AFP reports. 

Facebook said it has notched up some big users like Starbucks coffee chain and the World Health Organization.

“We built Workplace as an internal version of Facebook to run our own company, and it was so useful we started letting other organizations use it too,” Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg said in a post.

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From about a year ago the number of paid subscribers has grown by 40%, he added.

Use of video and collaboration platforms hosted by companies including Zoom, Slack, Microsoft, and Google rocketed.

As some firms plot returns to office life, it is likely that “hybrid” work models that mix remote and on-site work will become a norm at businesses.