With millions of people working from home or quarantined amid the coronavirus outbreak, demand for video conferencing and chat software from the likes of Microsoft (MSFT -1.32%), Alphabet’s (GOOG -1.14%) (GOOGL -0.98%) Google, and Zoom (ZM -0.55%) is skyrocketing.
That demand is expected to increase even more as the number of cases in the U.S. rises. As of Wednesday, there were 1,016 confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S., with 31 deaths attributed to the virus. As the number of school closures and quarantines increases, video conferencing will become a relied upon method of communication.
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Since the end of January Microsoft’s Teams collaboration platform has seen a 500% increase in usage in China. Usage is increasing in the U.S. as well as more U.S. employees work from home. Meanwhile, Zoom CFO Kelly Steckelberg told Yahoo Finance its minutes usage is up significantly from the 100 billion minutes run rate at the end of January.
All that demand is prompting the tech companies to make it easier and in some cases free to use their software. Microsoft announced Teams is now free to anyone with an email address.
Google said last week it's offering free access to its Hangouts Meet video conferencing service and all its G Suite and G Suite for Education collaboration platforms
and Zoom has lifted the 40-minute limit on meetings for its users in China. The same courtesy is being extended to schools and universities in the U.S. upon request. Slack (WORK) is already free, but the company is offering live Q&A and webinars to get the influx of users up to speed.
