Amazon Business is the fastest-growing corporate app

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Amazon Business, a version of the popular online retailer for corporate customers, was the fastest-growing business app in 2020.

It was followed by upstart business apps Miro, Figma, and Monday.com, according to an annual rankings released Thursday by business software company Okta.

Okta CEO Todd McKinnon said that more companies used Amazon Business in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic, which led to a major boom in remote work. Those employees needed chairs, desks, and office supplies.

Despite Amazon Business’s fast rise this year, McKinnon doesn’t expect it to become a dominant corporate app over the long term.

“This COVID is an anomaly,” McKinnon said, speculating that companies will use Amazon Business less in 2021 if more employees return to the office.

Other fast-rising corporate apps on the list like Miro and Monday.com share similar traits: They let employees collaborate remotely using digital whiteboards or other tools that enable people to coordinate on shared projects. Like Amazon Business, these apps appear to have received a lift from COVID-19 and the rise of remote work.

McKinnon said the Figma product design app stood out from others on the list because its greater popularity isn’t directly tied to the pandemic. The Adobe competitor has become a hit with designers. Taking notice, venture capitalists have invested over $130 million in the startup, which has a private valuation of over $2 billion, according to deal-tracking service PitchBook.

“This is more of a breakout product,” McKinnon said about Figma.

He likened Figma’s rise to 2019’s fastest-growing corporate app, the cloud database service Snowflake. Snowflake, which went public in September, has since become one of the tech sector’s hottest companies.

Okta’s annual survey, which is based on data from its 9,400 business customers, also tracks the most popular corporate apps based on number of companies that use them. This list has generally remained the same over the years, with familiar names like Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Salesforce, and Google Workspace leading the rankings.