SAN FRANCISCO, April 10 — The number of calls made using Microsoft’s Teams videoconferencing software surged 1,000 per cent in March as people collaborated online due to the coronavirus pandemic, the company said Thursday.

It also said a new record of 2.7 billion "meeting minutes” in a single day had been reached on the platform.

"We’ve been inspired by the ways our customers are connecting during meetings in Microsoft Teams,” Jared Spataro, Microsoft 365 corporate vice president, said in a post.

"We’ve seen bosses show up to meetings as virtual potato heads and team stand-ups turn delightfully silly.”

Videoconferencing has become de rigueur for work and social life as people around the world hunker down at home to avoid spreading the deadly coronavirus.

Teams competes with online video and meeting services hosted by competitors including Google, Cisco, Facebook and Zoom.

"Trends in the data and conversations with our customers show us the world is realizing we can effectively connect across distances in a way some never thought possible before,” Spataro said. — AFP