Microsoft acquires Flipgrid in social video push for education

By Dan Thorp-Lancaster
published

With its latest acquisition, Microsoft is pushing to make social video a bigger part of education.

Microsoft announced today that it has acquired Flipgrid (opens in new tab), a video-based social learning platform for schools. Going forward, Flipgrid will be provided for free to schools, and anyone who has already purchased a subscription within the last year will receive a refund.

Flipgrid is a video platform for schools that seeks to increase student engagement in the learning process by allowing kids to create and share videos on specific topics and projects with one another. The service currently sports a user base of more than 20 million people across 180 countries.

"We're thrilled to see the impact Flipgrid has had in social learning thus far and look forward to helping them continue to thrive as part of the Microsoft family," said Eran Megiddo, corporate vice president for Microsoft. "We're diligently committed to making sure their platform and products continue to work across the Microsoft, Google and partner ecosystems to benefit students and teachers everywhere."

Flipgrid is the latest piece of Microsoft push into the education market. Office 365 Education software is already provided for free for students and teachers, and Teams for Education is consistently adding new features for educators and students alike. Microsoft last year also launched Windows 10 S alongside a range of partner devices built for students.

Dan Thorp-Lancaster
Dan Thorp-Lancaster

Dan Thorp-Lancaster is the former Editor-in-Chief of Windows Central. He began working with Windows Central, Android Central, and iMore as a news writer in 2014 and is obsessed with tech of all sorts. You can follow Dan on Twitter @DthorpL and Instagram @heyitsdtl. 

5 Comments
  • Another well thought through acquisition with a real impact in education. Well-done MS.
  • Microsoft should buy android too 😂
  • Apple was smart to target young kids in the early 2000's with their devices. In 2018 many of those youth are young adults and only use iPhones, iPads and Macs. This is a smart move by MS. Get the kids into your ecosystem and have them growing up in it.
  • This happened a month ago. One newbie we've just hired... it was a wrong hire. The girl who's now under my team was hired as a programmer. She don't know how to install Unreal, Visual Studio or anything. She knows no Git either. Why? She was a multimedia graduates, they have Windows in the school but all softwares were pre-installed and she doesn't have a PC @ home, iPhone is all she has / use (which made me wonder, how she wrote her assignments or code). After some understanding, she seen to want to be a planner... still... let's see how fast can she pick up her PC skills and mindsets. As a freshman, she's lucky to be hired by a major game studio / publisher, but she's def un-fit to be a programmer. 3 months trial, time's ticking. If you are a cashier, sure, you prob don't need any of these (multi-tasking, File Explorer, VS, Office, SVN, Unreal, Adobe, Komplete, local server, work efficient by depending-on-no--mouse, etc). If you are a house wife / husband, you can pay bill with your smartphone and watch your Netflix on it too. But with most enterprises... can you run your entire business on an iOS or Android? As a creator, iOS or Android?
  • This was a good move. But when I went to the Flipgrid site it was interesting that yes you can download the Flipgrid app, but from where? Of course... the Apple Store and Google Play. So will MS make a UWP app? I mean seriously... Mr. Nadella... and lackeys, will you bloody make a UWP app? Will you lead by example?