Zoom has lifted time limits on its video calls for the free versions in China, as well as for schools in Japan, Italy, and the US, by request. While coronavirus has certainly caused demand for these apps to increase, it doesn’t hurt that Zoom, Microsoft, Google, and Slack are offering many of their products’ features for free. Microsoft Teams usage among Productiv clients is up 20 percent in the first week of March compared to the first week of February. Productiv, a firm that helps companies track how their employees use software, saw Zoom usage increase more than 30 percent since the beginning of February for employers who put restrictions on travel (Zoom usage also increased for those who didn’t impose restrictions). Third-party data supports the reports of spikes in usage of these products. Slack wouldn’t comment on whether it’s seen increased usership or any issues with increased demand, citing a quiet period around its upcoming earnings. Zoom wouldn’t comment specifically on growth in usership, but Zoom CFO Kelly Steckelberg told Yahoo Finance on Monday, “At the end of January if you took the run rate of our minutes usage at that point, we were on a run rate of a hundred billion annual meeting minutes and that is up pretty significantly since then.” Last week, their chat volume on Microsoft Teams was up 50 percent, while video and audio meetings were up 37 percent compared with a week earlier. Usage rose in the United States as well, at least among Microsoft employees, many of whom have been instructed to work from home.

Microsoft’s Teams saw a 500 percent increase in meetings, calls, and conference usage in China since the end of January, according to a spokesperson.

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