Unsplash/Pankaj Patel
You can sign up now to get the latest news and commentary delivered to your inbox every weekday at 6 AM EST.
Amazon and Slack are combining nerd power, as the two tech companies are taking their relationship to the next level. Technically, the two have been working together since 2018 but the new deal has them getting a bit more intimate.
The new deal will roll out Slack to all of Amazon’s 840k workers… even the ones planning work stoppages. In return, Slack, which uses AWS cloud, will start using the infrastructure from Amazon’s Chime video-service on its own platform. Of course, Jeff Bezos doesn’t work on the barter system. Slack signed a $425M deal lasting five years to use a multitude of Amazon’s services, including Chime.
Chime is pretty much the Fire Phone of video-calling services hasn’t really taken off as a video platform, according to AWS’ Matt Garman, thanks to a crappy user interface. Slack’s plan is to build on its super-powered mainframe to deliver the service within its own platform. For that familiar Slack feel, you’ve come to know and love…
Earning power
Along with the big announcement, Slack announced its Q1 earnings yesterday. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as good as investors hoped.
While both revenue and earnings beat expectations at $201.7M and an EPS loss of 2 cents, revenue growth was stable at 50%, which was 1% higher than the previous quarter. That’s good, right? Not when companies like Zoom (the real Zoom) are out there with 169% growth.
Slack’s stock dropped 15% on the day.
The bottom line…
Slack isn’t giving up hope. And CEO Stewart Butterfield balks at the comparison of his platform to the likes of Zoom and Microsoft Teams. Really? Mostly because Slack is focused on collaboration while the others are focused on facilitating meetings.
Butterfield knows that his revenue isn’t going gangbusters. which is probably why he points to healthy user growth. The company had 12k new paid customers this quarter, compared to only 5k during the previous two quarters.
Plus, users are spending more time online. Aren’t we all? Slack’s users spent 120 minutes per day sending GIFs vs. just 90 last quarter.
💧”Only 50% revenue growth? Better pump those numbers up. Those are rookie numbers.” (Ian, The Water Coolest HQ)
Like what you see? There’s more where that came from. Sign up now to get the latest news and commentary delivered to your inbox every weekday at 6 AM EST.