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Stewart Butterfield says Microsoft sees Slack as existential threat – TechCrunch
In a wide ranging interview with The Wall Street Journal’s global technology editor Jason Dean yesterday, Slack CEO and co-founder Stewart Butterfield had some strong words regarding Microsoft, saying the software giant saw his company as an existential threat.
The interview took place at the WSJ Tech Live event. When Butterfield was asked about a chart Microsoft released in July during the Slack quiet period, which showed Microsoft Teams had 13 million daily active users compared to 12 million for Slack, Butterfield appeared taken aback by the chart.
“The bigger point is that’s kind of crazy for Microsoft to do, especially during the quiet period. I had someone say it was unprecedented since the [Steve] Ballmer era. I think it’s more like unprecedented since the Gates’ 98-99 era. I think they feel like we’re an existential threat,” he told Dean.
It’s worth noting, that as Dean pointed out, you could flip that existential threat statement. Microsoft is a much bigger business with a trillion-dollar market cap versus Slack’s $400 million. It also has the benefit of linking Microsoft Teams to Office 365 subscriptions, but Butterfield says the smaller company with the better idea has often won in the past.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 25 2019, @07:40PM (11 children)
OK, this is just like that Docker article. What the heck is "Slack"? I first assumed it was Slackware, from the Church of the Sub-genius. But sounds like not. Everyone is using this? Or all Micro$oft zombie users? What is Slack?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by ikanreed on Friday October 25 2019, @07:47PM
Imagine chatting on the internet, but it's with your coworkers instead of people you only sort of hate.
(Score: 5, Informative) by DannyB on Friday October 25 2019, @07:56PM
I just learned some weeks back what Microsoft Teams is. From TFA it seems Slack is a competitor to that.
Teams: yet another new tool I have to learn how to use, to communicate with coworkers.
Q. What does it do that wasn't previously possible?
A. It lets Microsoft have access to what ought to be strictly internal communications!
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Friday October 25 2019, @10:41PM (3 children)
IRC as-a-service
Simple to use. Cheap enough. IRC integrations with everything thats ever existed are POSSIBLE with perl but nobody never writes it, whereas on slack they're not only possible but it exists and only takes one click.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 25 2019, @10:53PM (2 children)
I bet the fancy features can be duplicated if they haven't been already.
Like an IRC client that is prettied up to look more like a Slack or Discord, automatically embeds YouTube videos when they are linked, supports emoji, etc.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 26 2019, @01:19AM (1 child)
Mattermost [wikipedia.org] and Rocket.Chat [github.com] are both open-source Slack-clones that are funded by companies that offer to host them for you for a fee but you can self-host. Also, Discord [wikipedia.org] is a popular chat service that appears to be very similar to Slack in functionality and business model (i.e. no self-hosting); as far as I can tell the difference between Slack and Discord is almost entirely in who they market to.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 26 2019, @07:55PM
Discord is fucked. If they see irregular activity such as a VPN, they demand a phone number.
(Score: 2) by toddestan on Saturday October 26 2019, @06:43AM
Slack is just like Microsoft Teams, but isn't made by Microsoft.
They are both chat programs, aimed at office workers for inter-office communication. Besides just instant messaging, they support group chats, calling with soft phones, video calls and conferences, screen sharing, and stuff like that. They are also both Electron apps so they are bloated as all hell and chew up memory and CPU like crazy, though on a newer PC you'll hardly notice it.
I can only assume that Microsoft managed to get their numbers so high by including Teams with some (all?) versions of Microsoft Office. That's how I got it on my work computer, and that's how people at work started using it. We also have Cisco Jabber on our computers too which has been around a while and does most of the same things, though it's not quite as "cool" as Teams which has a modern UI (not saying it's better), tons of emoticons, built-in memes, and stuff like that.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Saturday October 26 2019, @07:54AM (1 child)
Same here -- I just read a whole bunch more stuff than I would have I understood this was not about Slackware, but about some social-blah-blah-whatever. Headline is a bait and switch!
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 26 2019, @09:06AM
Original clueless AC here, still clueless. What is this "Slack" supposed to do? Why would anyone think it is competion for software dinosaurs like Mucro$erf? I still have no clue what the Fine Article is about! Could we have a little more intro in the Fine Summary, so we know what we are talking about? Is this some kind of "We Work" thing? Is there an "app" for this? Do I have to buy an iPhone to be in on all the cool stuff? Holey Shit, Janirock Man!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 27 2019, @10:53PM (1 child)
how do you not know about a $400 million tech company? do you surf soylentnews from the library?
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 27 2019, @11:06PM
If it's not worth at least $1 billion, it's not a unicorn. It's just worthless.