JetBrains, the maker of developer tools and the Kotlin Google-endorsed programming language for Android app development, has launched its take on Microsoft Teams and Slack with a product called Space.
JetBrains is better known for its developer editing tools, such as the IntelliJ integrated development environment (IDE) for Java, and PyCharm, the most widely used IDE for programming language Python.
The Czechia-based company also designed Kotlin, the Java-compatible programming language that Google is encouraging all Android app developers to use and which it itself employs for its own Google Home apps[1].
It's possibly good timing for the company to officially launch its answer to Microsoft Teams and Slack, given that CRM giant Salesforce has just bought Slack for $27.7bn[2] with about 12 million daily active users[3] to boost Salesforce's Customer 360 platform[4].
Salesforce chief Marc Benioff said he liked Slack because it lets customers share CRM information over chat. Plus it makes Salesforce a more compelling rival to Microsoft's Office 365, Dynamics 365 and its free Teams offering.
JetBrains isn't a household name but it's got broad reach into the software developer market thanks to Kotlin and its IDEs[5]. There are about 23 million developers worldwide, according to Statista[6]. JetBrains says eight million developers use its tools[7].
The company launched Space in December 2019 via a beta program[8] and says it has received over 35,000 requests from companies to use it.
The early-access program was squarely aimed at developers, with support for coding version-control based on Linux kernel boss Linus Torvalds' Git, code review, DevOps features based on Kotlin scripting, package repositories, planning tools, and an issue tracker. On top of this, it has all the expected