Acquired in 2018 for $7.5B, Microsoft’s Github is an Internet hosting service for software development and version control using Git. It provides the distributed version control of Git plus access control, bug tracking, software feature requests, task management, continuous integration, and wikis for every project.
Microsoft recently disclosed GitHub’s annual revenue which stood at $200 to $300 million as at the time of acquisition, has grown up to $1 billion; and over 90 million active users on the platform, up from 28 million when it was newly acquired.
“Since our acquisition, GitHub is now at $1 billion annual recurring revenue and GitHub’s developer-first ethos has never been stronger,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in today’s earnings call. “More than 90 million people now use the service to build software for any cloud, on any platform — up three times.”
This is the first time Microsoft has publicly shared any financial data about the service.
A lot of developers especially open-source advocates have expressed their worry that Microsoft might change the way the service is performed and that it is most likely to reduce its free offerings to make more money.
However, GitHub debunked these insinuations by saying that its free service will continue to encourage open source and open source developers. Meanwhile, projects like GitHub Copilot probably wouldn’t have been possible all thanks to Microsoft. While some other users moved to GitLab and other related services, the increase in new users speaks volumes as to the growth and popularity of the platform amongst developers.