In 2022, the popular corporate messengers Slack and Microsoft Teams announced their withdrawal from Russia. Slack left users only free plans, while MS Teams banned license renewals. Russian business began to look for alternatives from local developers. Forbes figured out who became the beneficiaries of the withdrawal of foreign services and whether there is a place for new players in this market.
Almost all Russian messengers surveyed by Forbes experienced a boom in demand in 2022. The strongest growth was recorded by eXpress and Tada.team.
According to eXpress CEO Andrey Vratsky, in 2022, the audience of the eXpress service he launched in 2019 has quadrupled. By the beginning of March 2023, the messenger has several hundred customers and more than half a million users, the founder claims.
