Zoho Workplace zooms 59% across Africa

Global business software company Zoho has announced that its enterprise collaboration platform Workplace is now used by more than 16 million users globally, with Africa leading its growth rate.

Zoho Workplace experienced 34% year-on-year growth in 2021 globally, while Africa saw 59% growth. The base of small and medium enterprises grew by 40%, larger businesses by 36%, and enterprises by more than 20%. More than 40% of new customers made the switch from Google and Microsoft equivalents.

The company attributes this substantial growth to increasing business demand for contextual applications with high standards for user privacy as well as rising costs from other collaboration platform providers. Since the start of the pandemic, Zoho Workplace adoption has accelerated as businesses of all sizes transitioned to remote work.

“Zoho has always been about persistent long-term execution,” says Andrew Bourne, Zoho regional manager for Africa. “As competitors continue to raise prices or eliminate free editions for those who need them most, Workplace continues to serve businesses and professionals with a feature-rich suite that increases productivity while remaining broadly affordable. Our ad-free approach and respect towards user privacy adds to the overall experience that our solution provides.”

Demand is largely driven by businesses still facing harsh realities of the pandemic, and unable to absorb unforeseen hikes in operational costs to support collaboration. For example, says Zoho, Within days of Google announcing that it would be ending the free edition of its Workspace, Zoho’s Workplace platform experienced a 120% increase in migrations from Google-hosted domains.

Thomas Randall, senior research analyst at Info-Tech Research Group, says: “Other providers have justified price add-ons and increases to reflect the additional value they believe their customers have received over the pandemic for using their tools. Yet freemium offerings and price consistency have been central for many customers and businesses to stay afloat during lockdowns. Now that such offerings are in short supply, Zoho will likely see increased demand for their Workplace services as customers seek strong ROI for productivity and collaboration software.”

Zoho Workplace is available in three editions: Standard (R45 per user, per month, billed annually) Professional (R90 per user, per month, billed annually) and Mail-only (R15 per user, per month, billed annually). For more information, visit: https://www.zoho.com/workplace/pricing.html