Zoom CEO wants FTC to investigate Microsoft bundling Teams into Office

He’s got a point about bundling! Vox Media uses Google Meet now because it’s part of our Google Workspace account, though we used to use Zoom. As for Teams, I’ve never used it, but there’s still a little Teams icon in my PC’s system tray because Microsoft jammed it in there when I upgraded to Windows 11, and it launches automatically whenever I turn on my computer.

And Microsoft is constantly trying to use its products to get you to use its other products. There are malware-like pop-ups in Windows 11 trying to guilt you into using Edge. Edge periodically resets my default search engine to Bing. Windows ignores your default browser choice when you click certain links in the OS! There’s a Bing Chat icon in my Edge sidebar and in my dang Windows Start Menu. It all feels a little desperate.

Microsoft Teams is very successful — as of June, it had around 300 million daily active users. How much of that success is due to the fact that it’s bundled into Office and preinstalled on every Windows 11 PC? We might soon find out.