The chat service Slack disappointed investors so much with its forecast for the upcoming business that the company temporarily lost around a fifth of its value. Slack had exceeded the analysts estimates with the figures for the past business quarter, which was closed at the end of January, but failed to meet expectations with its sales forecast for the current quarter.
Slack Was Seen Among The Potential Beneficiaries Of The Corona Virus Crisis
Since companies let more employees work from home and do without business trips, chat and video conference services were experiencing a surge in demand. However, chat services also had to concede lastly that it was uncertain how far this would bring permanently paying customers. This is possible if the link for the respective conference becomes public and the participants do not end up in the virtual waiting room and are added by the organizer.
Pandemic Can Also Have Negative Effects
Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield describes the events of the past few weeks in detail from his point of view. Butterfield addresses the shift from the classic email inbox to channels like those found on Slack. Until this process was completed, he and his team had planned five years or more. Now it seems that everything has been brought forward by one and a half year.
What may sound like a great success in the first moment could also be temporary. Butterfield is well aware of this. The current situation is good for your own business, but the economic situation can have a major impact on many small businesses and therefore on several thousand Slack customers who, in the worst case, would have to withdraw from the business. The company has literally no idea what’s going to happen, and nobody else has.
