Number of Office 365 users grows to more than a hundred million

The number of Office 365 users has grown to more than 100 million in the past year. Microsoft’s office software subscription service has 85 million business users, while 24 million consumers use the service.

The number of business users of Office 365 grew by 40 percent in the past year, Microsoft says in its quarterly figures and discussion. Office 365 is the subscription service to Microsoft’s office software and the software giant sells it in part instead of licensing the software.

In addition to Office 365, especially Azure was the major riser in Microsoft’s quarterly figures. The cloud branch saw an increase of 116 percent, while the use of the cloud service doubled in the past year. Microsoft’s Windows branch posted sales that were roughly the same as in the same period last year.

The consumer divisions performed less well. The game branch sold fewer Xbox consoles, causing sales to fall by five percent. The hardest blow went to the mobile branch, the former Nokia. It recorded 70 percent less turnover than in the same quarter last year.

Microsoft expects to complete the purchase of social networking site LinkedIn in the coming months, while selling its low-cost phone development business to FIH, a subsidiary of Foxconn.