When Meta (MVRS) first announced that it was launching a corporate platform known as Workplace in 2016, many were skeptical of its ability to take off.
Slack (WORK) had become ubiquitous — over 70% of Fortune 100 companies rely on the platform for their daily office communication — and some did not see any other platform matching its widespread reach in corporate culture.
Six years later the situation is much different. Slack is still the biggest office communication platform. However, Microsoft (MSFT) Teams launched in 2017, and Workplace has made inroads.
Slack, which was bought by Salesforce CRM for about $27 billion last year, was being used by 12 million people and over 130,000 companies prior to the acquisition. Workplace had about 7 million users at the time.
Other office communications companies are generally smaller companies like Fleep and Chanty. And many smaller companies such as traditional law firms and investment firms will generally have software engineers design their own internal communications system for security reasons.
What Is McDonald's Going To Do On Workplace?
Any major partner is a huge win for elevating a corporate communications platform.
This just occurred for Meta Workplace, which just announced that it has signed a deal with fast food giant McDonald's (MCD).
The fast-food chain had already started using Workplace in Australia, New Zealand, Portugal, Slovakia, Poland and a few select markets in the U.S. but had been waiting to roll it out across all markets.
As it is meant to be used by both corporate and in-house restaurant workers, Workplace will be available on phones to contact managers and other employees as well as access various company materials.
The vast majority of McDonald's restaurants are franchises. While the software will be available to all, individual franchisees will be able to determine how or whether to have the staff use it.
"We [...] love that it helps us better listen and engage with our teams, making it convenient to provide quick and direct feedback," René Mirá, a McDonald's franchise owner in Spain, said in a Meta statement announcing the deal. "But most of all, Workplace has been fundamental in helping us communicate throughout COVID, thanking our teams and being able to keep them updated on security measures and changing regulations impacting our business."
Spain and Portugal are some of the places where Workplace is currently being used the most — 73% of McDonald's restaurants in Portugal use it on a weekly basis.
Why Is This Deal A Big Deal?
The announcement was somewhat slow in coming given that Workplace was already so widely used in many McDonald's restaurants.
Some sources interviewed by TechCrunch speculated that this could be because it was waiting for a right time given that Workplace has faced a number of different issues over the last few years — the two people leading it, Karandeep Anand and Julien Codorniou, both left last year for other endeavors.
There was also some uncertainty about its future as a standalone or integrated product — in 2022, news came out that Facebook refused investor offers to spin it off, Tech Crunch reported.
With the new client, it now seems increasingly likely that Workplace will continue on its current path of direct competition.
"According to our sources, it was partly because McDonald's — working hard to avoid its own negative PR skirmishes over health, cultural imperialism, bad for small business, and so on — wanted to keep clear of any 'reputation issues' and the bad news cycle Facebook (or Meta as it has now been rebranded) was facing around being too big or too bad of an influence," TechCrunch reporter Ingrid Lunden wrote.
