SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook Workplace's business software grew about 40% in a year to reach seven million paying subscribers as the pandemic accelerated a trend towards remote working, the company said Tuesday.
The service, which companies can use as an internal social network to communicate with employees, is still behind top rivals such as Teams, which according to Microsoft now has around 145 million daily active users.
Facebook said it has won over some big users like the Starbucks coffee chain and the World Health Organization.
"We created Workplace as an internal version of Facebook to run our business, and it was so helpful that we started letting other organizations use it as well," Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg said in a post.
Since about a year ago, the number of paid subscribers has grown by 40%, he added.
As the pandemic closed offices due to health risks, companies switched to employees who tended to work online whenever possible.
The use of video and collaboration platforms hosted by companies such as Zoom, Slack, Microsoft and Google has exploded.
As some companies plan to return to office life, it is likely that "hybrid" work models that mix remote and on-site work will become the norm in companies.
