Microsoft's reach is not a threat

Microsoft may be Slack's main competitor, but the widespread adoption of Microsoft software is not a major issue for Stewart Butterfield, co-founder and CEO of the messaging application.

The Microsoft Teams service is however a direct competitor of Slack's messaging platform.

As a component of the Office 365 productivity application group, the Teams application is a feature of Microsoft's Commercial Cloud category that investors carefully examine to track its transition from licensing to subscriptions. Office products and cloud services account for a quarter of all Microsoft revenue – the world's most valuable public company.

Last week, Microsoft said teams had more active daily users than Slack. A leader also suggested that the company's user base could grow further, the number of monthly Office 365 active users of commercial use reaching 180 million.

"If it's based on a wider distribution, I do not think it's really a threat," Butterfield told the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference in Aspen, Colorado.

Butterfield's point of view is inspired by the disruptive innovation concept of Professor Clayton Christensen of Harvard Business School. Butterfield said that if the product of a small business has resonances with its customers, it could hurt a company that does a lot more.

He highlighted Microsoft's willingness to compete with Google in the Internet search market, after the latter became dominant in Windows operating systems.

"Tens of billions of dollars in this [search engine] and I do not know what their market share is now – 9% or something like that, "Butterfield told Fortune's Adam Lashinsky, with NetMarketShare putting Micorsoft's search engine at 8.6% on desk and laptops for the month of June.

Butterfield also talked about Google's efforts to popularize its Google+ social network after Facebook's rise, including spreading it in Gmail and forcing users to use it to comment on YouTube videos.

Mr. Butterfield said that spreading Google+ to so many people did not make a difference, and Google closed the consumer product earlier this year.

"I think it's getting more and more difficult, not because there's something wrong with Microsoft, because it's hard for us at this point, given the the current size – it's hard to continue to focus on quality, the user experience and the more you grow, the harder it is, "said Slack's CEO. "So if the competition was based on the quality of the user experience, and that's where every effort is made, it would probably be more intimidating for us."

Butterfield said that Microsoft was an amazing company and that she was a good working partner. Slack recently released a calendar integration for Office 365. Microsoft would have already tried to buy Slack, but eventually rolled back.

"Whatever Microsoft does, we will always do the same thing for the customers," said Butterfield.

Slack's shares rose 3% on Monday after Barclays and Canaccord Genuity analysts initiated a hedge with overweights and stock purchase ratings, respectively. "We've done dozens, if not hundreds, of hours of analysis on these companies and the industry, and Slack seems to be the winner of this space," Canaccord analysts, led by Richard Davis, wrote.

The action Slack has not yet closed above the $ 38.62 price at which it halted the day it debuted on the New York Stock Exchange last month.