Business and video conferencing app downloads skyrocket in recent weeks

[Shawn Knight]

Editor's take: It’s anyone’s guess as to how much longer this whole ordeal will last but it’s almost a guarantee that it’ll leave a lasting scar on society and how we go about things moving forward. For example, I wouldn’t be surprised if massive gatherings like tech conferences turn increasingly digital and working from home becomes a bit more commonplace.

Business-focused and video conferencing apps are seeing record growth as work from home policies, social distancing measures and government mandated lockdowns continue to grip the globe in an effort to slow down the spread of Covid-19.

Between March 15 – 21, video conferencing apps like Hangouts Meet and Houseparty realized explosive growth across numerous countries as observed by app market data and insights company App Annie. In the US, for example, Hangouts Meet was downloaded 30x more than the weekly average during Q4 2019 in the US.

Houseparty was equally as popular in France as downloads were up 30x during the same period. The app really shined in Spain and Italy, however, as growth mushroomed by 2360x and 423x in these regions, respectively.

During the week of March 14 – 21, global downloads of business-minded apps topped 62 million across Google Play and the App Store. The growth represents an increase of 45 percent over the previous week and up 90 percent from the weekly average across all of 2019 in the business app category.

Masthead credit: Africa Studio

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https://www.techspot.com/news/84620-business-video-conferencing-app-downloads-skyrocket-recent-weeks.html

 

[QuantumPhysics]

Am I the only one who’s family tried to pull them into one of those Zoom video conferences? You bet I made other plans for that hour.

 

[nismo91]

We're using Skype for Business (essentially Teams) in my workplace, Cisco WebEx and LogMeIn GoToMeeting for our partners and I've recently tried Zoom for connecting with friends. I gotta say Zoom works really well. The mobile application footprint is less than half of what Skype offers and even the free version works properly.

Didn't want to try Hangouts because I'm regularly using Google Duos and while it is visually superior to WhatsApp Video Call, it is often unreliable. As for Houseparty, well this is the first I'm hearing it.

 

[Uncle Al]

As this situation continues to expand, I will be very, very surprised if these services don't start charging a small fee for their use. (It would be high, but just enough to get the users used to paying the charges, then the fee's will raise later on).

I've already started to notice my own internet service lag at times. Many servers out there are setting up so if they don't see regular activity they drop you off .... guess it's just a sign of the times with internet backbone's feeling the strain ....

 

[mctommy]

As this situation continues to expand, I will be very, very surprised if these services don't start charging a small fee for their use. (It would be high, but just enough to get the users used to paying the charges, then the fee's will raise later on).

I've already started to notice my own internet service lag at times. Many servers out there are setting up so if they don't see regular activity they drop you off .... guess it's just a sign of the times with internet backbone's feeling the strain ....

Not sure about the fees but I know zoom gave free minutes, subdomain, etc... for nonprofits and schools at the start of all of this. We use zoom at work for video conferencing and our conference rooms are all connected to zoom... making it very seamless. We also use team but that's mostly for messaging and collaboration.

 

[TomSEA]

Like most folks, my employer is doing exclusively online meetings now and those who were hesitant about it before are now wanting to incorporate it as part of our regular meeting structure.