Covid-19 lockdown: Demand for video calling continues to surge, says Microsoft

Microsoft Corp said on Thursday that video calling and educational usage of its Teams productivity software had risen in recent weeks as employees work remotely and some U.S. schools cancel in-person classes for the rest of the academic year.

Microsoft said that video calls on Teams, which competes with apps such as Slack Technologies Inc and Zoom Video Communications Inc, were up 1,000% in the month of March, but did not give an absolute figure. The company said the proportion of meetings and calls that included video more than doubled to 43% from 21% over the month of March.

Jared Spataro, corporate vice president for Microsoft 365 at the company, said Microsoft’s data showed video use interspersed throughout the workday.