Slack Revenue and Usage Statistics (2024)

David Curry

Updated: January 15, 2024

In 2011, indie game studio Tiny Speck launched Glitch, an anti-combat MMO which failed to gain any interest. Due to the team being located in three locations, it built an instant-messenger during development to better communicate online, which became a hub of activity.

Seeing the opportunity, co-founder and CEO Stewart Butterfield shut down Glitch in 2012 and began to work full-time on the messaging app, which would become Slack.

This was Butterfield’s second time pivoting a failed game project into a successful tech product. In 2002, his video game studio Ludicorp started work on Game Neverending, which never made it to launch. Some of the game’s features were used to create Flickr, which he sold to Yahoo in 2004 for $25 million.

It is worth noting the similarities between Slack’s founding and Discord. Both were run by entrepreneurs who had made millions from their previous venture (Flickr and OpenFeint) and then released a video game to muted reception. That failure inspired both to launch communication tools.

Originally beta testing the app with a few organisations, Butterfield saw the potential of Slack as an answer to the many disparate ways employees communicated. Instead of meetings, e-mail threads and phone calls, everything could be done through one application.

According to Slack, using the app reduces emails by 32 percent and meetings by 27 percent.

After a year of privately testing the app, Slack launched publicly in February 2014. It was an instant success, receiving 8,000 requests in the first day and 15,000 by the second week. Slack had to stagger the launch, as it added more server capacity to meet demand.

As Slack added more organisations, word of mouth accelerated demand, as many media organisations were the first to use the app and wrote positive reviews of it. It grew at a rate of five to 10 percent a week in the first year. Slack reached unicorn startup status in 2014, and its value almost trebled the next year when it was valued at $2.8 billion.

Slack’s first few years were led by the app’s user experience, which was easier and modern compared to Hipchat or Campfire, the two other notable online chat tools used at the time. In 2016, Slack debuted a flurry of new features to push it beyond the competition, including an app and bot ecosystem.

The use of bots made it easier for managers to relocate most of their operations to Slack. Managers could track employee time off, send surveys, receive and forward emails, and talk to clients through the app.

Business tools, such as Google Drive, GitHub, Asana, Zapier and Salesforce, are all integrated into Slack as well. Some have built an app inside Slack, allowing users to stay on the platform, while others simply inform users of any changes or updates to files. There are over 2,000 apps and 750 bots on the Slack App Directory.

For the past three years, Slack and Microsoft have gone back and forth at each other, with most of the barbs coming from Slack. Butterfield has said Microsoft is “unhealthily preoccupied with killing [Slack]” and recently filed an anti-trust lawsuit, due to Microsoft use of the Office 365 platform to accelerate Teams adoption.

While Slack has grown steadily in daily active users (DAUs), from six million when Teams launched to 12 million in 2020, Microsoft Teams has surged ahead, currently at 75 million DAUs. This is partly due to Microsoft marketing Teams as a catch-all solution for people and organisations affected by COVID-19.

Butterfield has also accused Microsoft of “fudging the numbers” by saying a Teams user is active simply for having the app open or using it for less than 10 minutes per day. Microsoft has refuted those claims.

Microsoft appears set on making Teams the communications platform for everyone, but that doesn’t necessarily mean Slack will be crushed. As Butterfield said in 2019, 70 percent of the company’s top 50 biggest customers use Office 365 in tandem with Slack.

It has taken some of the shine from Slack however, which was the darling of the tech industry. From a high of $23 billion post-IPO, Slack’s value dropped to $17 billion. Salesforce acquired Slack for $27.7 billion in July 2021, integrating it into the company’s enterprise services portfolio.

We have collected data and statistics on Slack. Read on below to find out more.

Slack Key Statistics

  • Slack generated $1.5 billion revenue in 2022, according to Salesforce’s full year financials
  • Slack had an estimated 35 million daily active users and one million organizations use the app
  • In December 2020, Slack was acquired by Salesforce for $27.7 billion

Slack overview

TitleTitle 2
Launch date14 August 2013
HQSan Francisco, California
PeopleStewart Butterfield (co-founder, CEO), Cal Henderson (co-founder, CTO)
Business typeSubsidiary
OwnerSalesforce
IndustryBusiness communication

Slack Revenue

Slack made $1.5 billion revenue in 2022 and that is expected to increase to $1.8 billion in 2023.

Slack annual revenue 2014 to 2022 ($mm)

YearRevenue ($mm)
201412
201530
2016100
2017200
2018221
2019401
2020630
2021902
20221500

Note: Slack’s fiscal year runs from March to April. Sources: Business Insider, Company data

Slack Users

Slack had an estimated 35 million active users in 2022.

Slack annual users 2015 to 2022 (mm)

YearUsers (mm)
20152
20164
20176
20188
201912
202018
202125
202235

Note: 2020 values are estimated. Sources: Company data, Fast Company, The Verge

Slack Organisations

There were one million organisations using Slack in 2022, although the majority of them don’t pay for the service.

Slack annual organisations using app 2014 to 2022

YearOrganisations
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2022

Note: Many organisations do not pay for Slack. Sources: Company data, Fast Company, The Verge

Slack Valuation

Slack’s public valuation peaked in 2019 at $23 billion. Salesforce purchase was $10 billion higher than its market cap at the time.

Slack valuation 2014 to 2021 ($bn)

YearValuation ($bn)
20141.1
20152.8
20163.8
20175
20187.1
201923
202017
202127

Sources: VentureBeat, TechCrunch, FT

Slack vs Microsoft Teams: DAUs and Organisations

Slack FAQ

How many Fortune 100 companies use Slack?

According to Slack, 65 of the Fortune 100 use Slack in some capacity

Which are some of the largest organisations using Slack

IBM, Amazon, PayPal and Airbnb all use Slack

How active is the average Slack user?

Users are active for 90 minutes per day on weekdays, according to Slack in 2019

How much does Slack reduce email?

According to Slack, using the app reduces emails by 32 percent and meetings by 27 percent

How many messages are sent on Slack per week?

1.5 billion messages are sent on the service every week

How many developers are registered on Slack?

Over 500,000 developers use Slack

How many apps are built for Slack

There are 2,000 apps and 750 bots available in the Slack App Directory