30 Virtual Meeting Statistics You Should Know
Virtual meeting statistics and video conferencing statistics have accelerated throughout 2020 and will continue into 2021.
At first, the growing popularity of working from home saw a steady rise in virtual meetings and team collaboration apps.
When the coronavirus pandemic forced almost everybody to change to remote working, video conferencing usage soared.
In this post, we look at 30 virtual meeting statistics that make the case for video conferencing and remote work.
What does it mean to have a virtual meeting?
Before we start, let's cover off the basics.
A virtual meeting is the gathering of colleagues, business contacts, clients, or even friends over an internet connection.
Instead of congregating together at a venue, participants join from wherever they might be - as long as they have an internet connection.
Using platforms like Microsoft Teams, Skype for Business, Zoom, and many more, we can meet virtually instead of travelling to and from physical venues.
How long is too long for a virtual meeting?
This question is best answered on a per team, per company, or per individual basis.
For some users of virtual meetings, the longer the better. For others, a short catch-up is all that's needed.
STAT #1 According to Attentiv, the average meeting time is between 31 minutes and 60 minutes.
That's not to say a lot of shorter virtual meetings aren't happening too.
There is no catch-all answer to this question. But, keeping people engaged during meetings remains a high priority for regular virtual meeters.
What is the best way to have a virtual meeting?
There are no stats to suggest what the best way to have a virtual meeting is either.
But, we do have plenty of stats that suggest different user preferences. Take these into account when starting virtual meetings for the first time or when ramping up.
STAT #2 Wall Street Journal reported that 73% of virtual meetings have between two and four people. This indicates favour to smaller meetings.
STAT #3 Real usage stats show that Microsoft Teams leads the way as the most popular virtual meeting option with 145m daily active users.
So, can we outright say the best way to have a virtual meeting is between two and four people on Microsoft Teams?
Again, this question is best answered on a per team, per company, or per individual basis. But, it's hard to detract from the compelling figures.
One thing we should point out is the importance of a meeting agenda. Just because your meeting is no longer in-person, it doesn't mean you shouldn't follow the same protocol to have efficient meetings.
STAT #4 "The Balance Careers" suggests that you can reduce meeting time can by 80% by following a structured agenda.
Microsoft Teams statistics
As they are now 145m daily active users of Microsoft Teams, it's appropriate to break down some of the virtual meeting statistics specific to this platform.
STAT #5 The number of organizations using Teams increased from 50,000 in 2017 to 500,000 in 2020.
STAT #6 Microsoft Teams grew by 894% in total from March 20 to June 2020. Microsoft cited the pandemic and associated lockdown as a key reason for this hypergrowth.
STAT #7 In uncertain times, when people took to social media more than ever before, out of the plethora of collaboration tools available, only Microsoft Teams and Zoom were recognised as "most mentioned brands."
The majority of these social media posts originated on mobile devices. This is another area where virtual meetings - and Microsoft Teams, in particular - grew.
STAT #8 On the Google Play store by November 2020, Microsoft Teams sat at 2,225,936 downloads.
STAT #9 The iOS app store didn't make public the number of downloads but in November 2020, it was public that there were 300,000 ratings for Microsoft Teams.
STAT #10 The combined mobile users meant weekly Microsoft Teams mobile users increased by more than 300% in a single month during early 2020. And it's easy to see why. The benefits of virtual meetings are undeniable.
Benefits of virtual meetings
By now, you'll be familiar with the selling points of virtual meetings (increased productivity, less travel, etc).
But, creating a tangible business case remains tough as video conferencing benefits are often felt rather than seen.
Lifesize has conducted several studies that help with communicating hard figures that make your business case easier to make.
STAT #11 98% of people who responded to a study by Lifesize stated that video conferencing helps with relationship-building inside and outside the company.
Further studies by Lifesize also revealed glowing reviews for virtual meetings and video conferencing:
- STAT #12 98% of respondents agreed with the sentiment that improved communication and collaboration lead to improved productivity
- STAT #13 94% of businesses say video conferencing increases productivity
- STAT #14 90% of respondents say video makes it easier to get their point across
- STAT #15 89% of respondents agree that video conferencing reduces time to complete projects or tasks
- STAT #16 89% of users say video conferencing helps them feel connected
- STAT #17 87% more people choose to use video conferencing today than the past 2 years
- STAT #18 87% of employees not physically present for a meeting report feeling better engaged with colleagues through video
- STAT #19 82% of video users are less likely to multitask (as compared to just audio)
- STAT #20 76% of individuals use video collaboration to work remotely, and 75% of those experienced increased productivity and an enhanced work-life balance
Video conferencing usage
Other platforms have also made their growing virtual meeting statistics available.
For example:
- STAT #21 As of November 2020, Zoom has 300 million daily active participants.
- STAT #22 In April 2020, Cisco Webex had 25 billion meeting minutes in a single month.
Ironically, one of the major benefits cited for remote working has always been fewer meetings in the office. In reality, it looks like we're having more meetings than ever - and on more tools than we knew we had.
There is no doubt that the pandemic has caused the majority of recent usage of virtual meetings.
STAT #23 In fact, TrustRadius says that there was 500% increase in buyer activity of web and video conferencing services since the Covid-19 outbreak began.
The types of virtual meetings we have range from one-to-one meetings to town hall scenarios.
More studies by Lifesize show that:
- STAT #24 80% of users said they use video communication at work for 1:1 meetings
- STAT #25 78% of users said they use video communication at work for team meetings or stand-up meetings
- STAT #26 77% of users said they use video communication at work for large group meetings or company town halls
As businesses reacted to sudden remote working demand, more informal combinations of video conferencing equipment and software has become commonplace.
STAT #27 For example, one survey suggests 62% of businesses using Cisco equipment also use Microsoft Teams.
STAT #28 Furthermore, according to Owl Labs, 89% of companies use more than one video conferencing platform.
This means IT departments and users are left with several options to make a video call or host a virtual meeting.
Choice can be a good thing. But, knowing which tool to use when gets harder as your number of employees increases.
How to join up the virtual meeting experience
If you are one of the many businesses that has adopted a new web conferencing platform for your home workers but have existing equipment from a previous rollout, there is a way to tie the two together.
And the importance of getting this right is not to be understated.
STAT #29 According to Wall Street Journal, 53% of conference rooms are designed to accommodate seven or more people. So, that's a lot of real estate going empty if users can't or won't use the technology in place.
When you have Webex devices in your meeting rooms, but all your home workers are now au fait with Microsoft Teams, the last thing you want them to do is download Webex and learn how to use another platform.
They only just got used to Teams!
Instead, you can use a bridging platform to stitch together the video conferencing platforms and provide users with a single-click join experience for all meetings.
STAT #30 Video conferencing will be a $13.8 billion market by 2023.
On the face of it, this sounds great for businesses and for remote workers.
But, if nobody can join these virtual meetings, it's a lot of money down the drain.
To make sure your meeting rooms are prepared for hybrid working (remote + in-office), book a meeting to discuss how we can make virtual meetings work for you.
