SLACK

NAME Slack does not take its name from the informal word “slacker” (a person who avoids work). It is an acronym for “Searchable Log of All Conversation and Knowledge”.

HISTORY Slack was started in 2013, following its development by the company that created Glitch, an online game. Stewart Butterfield, Eric Costello, Cal Henderson and Serguei Mourachov wrote the code.

OWNERSHIP Major investors include venture capital firms like Andreessen Horowitz and Softbank. Slack has a $5.1 billion (€4.4 billion) valuation.

BUSINESS MODEL Slack is a “freemium” product and depends on users’ needing information they have “slacked”. The free searchable limit is 10,000 messages.

FUTURE Once Slack began making headlines, Microsoft announced Teams, Google launched Hangouts and Facebook presented Workplace. Missing from the list is Amazon, which will soon be valued at a trillion dollars. If it wants Slack, it will get it.