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Seems a bit premature to claim that Slack "won" considering the market itself is growing and that some of their newish competitors (MS, kind of Google, perhaps

Seems a bit premature to claim that Slack "won" considering the market itself is growing and that some of their newish competitors (MS, kind of Google, perhaps even Facebook in the future) have very deep pockets. The article makes a point that the first movers don't always win in the long term and I agree. Slack had the right user experience to make people want to use team chats, but that doesn't mean that experience won't be improved on. Instant messaging/chat apps' popularities have proven to be quite ephemeral over the years and I doubt the current generation will be different

close04 8y ago
Agreed. Unlike an operating system, or a specific hardware spec (like a CPU ISA), such team chat software if far less likely to keep you locked in. So I wouldn't be surprised in 2-3 years from now some website will proclaim "How [insert another name here] won the market". Making such judgement now feel way too premature. It's the same as when people proclaim that Tesla won the EV market. The market is barely taking its first steps... In the meantime everybody close shop and go home. Slack already won. :)
Alex3917 8y ago
Slack has 8M DAU, which is probably at most 1% of the total team chat market. The whole article makes no sense.
- mulletbum 8y ago
  Microsoft Teams is currently on for 125,000 companies, with a customer base of 100 million in said market. To act like they can't easily "win" or cut slack apart is crazy. This article makes no sense at all.
  - WorldMaker 8y ago
    If the projected merger of Skype for Business (fka Lync) into Teams happens as projected/announced, Teams would be in a particularly strong spot to take the lead given existing corporate reliance on SfB and the current "self-competition" between the two. (Slack refusing to sell to Microsoft from this angle looks like the very reason why they won't "win" in the long term.)
  - DaiPlusPlus 8y ago
    MSTeams still has issues: the top one being that it’s tied to Office 365 and the app won’t let you sign-in to multiple accounts. You can only join the MSTeams account associated with your Office 365 subscription - or as a limited “Guest” user of another account at their invitation - and there’s no sign this is going to change any time soon. - and of course, the user-experience for switching accounts isn’t the best either.
    - mulletbum 8y ago
      You mean like the free version not tied to O365 that they have already released? https://products.office.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/group-chat-software?&OCID=AID643148_SEM_VlZ7H35y https://products.office.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/group-chat... Multi Accounts, sure, but that is simple and easy for them to implement.

close04 8y ago

Agreed. Unlike an operating system, or a specific hardware spec (like a CPU ISA), such team chat software if far less likely to keep you locked in. So I wouldn't be surprised in 2-3 years from now some website will proclaim "How [insert another name here] won the market". Making such judgement now feel way too premature. It's the same as when people proclaim that Tesla won the EV market. The market is barely taking its first steps... In the meantime everybody close shop and go home. Slack already won. :)

Alex3917 8y ago

Slack has 8M DAU, which is probably at most 1% of the total team chat market. The whole article makes no sense.

mulletbum 8y ago
Microsoft Teams is currently on for 125,000 companies, with a customer base of 100 million in said market. To act like they can't easily "win" or cut slack apart is crazy. This article makes no sense at all.
- WorldMaker 8y ago
  If the projected merger of Skype for Business (fka Lync) into Teams happens as projected/announced, Teams would be in a particularly strong spot to take the lead given existing corporate reliance on SfB and the current "self-competition" between the two. (Slack refusing to sell to Microsoft from this angle looks like the very reason why they won't "win" in the long term.)
- DaiPlusPlus 8y ago
  MSTeams still has issues: the top one being that it’s tied to Office 365 and the app won’t let you sign-in to multiple accounts. You can only join the MSTeams account associated with your Office 365 subscription - or as a limited “Guest” user of another account at their invitation - and there’s no sign this is going to change any time soon. - and of course, the user-experience for switching accounts isn’t the best either.
  - mulletbum 8y ago
    You mean like the free version not tied to O365 that they have already released? https://products.office.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/group-chat-software?&OCID=AID643148_SEM_VlZ7H35y https://products.office.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/group-chat... Multi Accounts, sure, but that is simple and easy for them to implement.