Microsoft's Business Grows by 50% Amid Pandemic

Microsoft reported on Tuesday that its cloud computing services "Azure" grew 50% in a second quarter of high revenues as the global pandemic benefited from working and learning from home.

The tech company said that revenue in the "smart cloud" segment rose 23% to $14.6 billion, with a 50% growth in Azure.

Shares went up 5% in trading after gaining around 41% in 2020 alone  as COVID-19 has transformed computing and software. Microsoft also saw a sales boom on the professional social network "LinkedIn".

Microsoft executives said they expected a midpoint of $14.83 billion in revenue from the company's "smart cloud" segment for the third quarter of the fiscal year.

For the computing segment, sales are expected to reach around $13 billion, higher than estimates.

Microsoft's GamePass, the company's $10 game monthly subscription, has risen to 18 million users, up from the 15 million in September.

Moreover, Xbox Live gaming service has over 100 million monthly active users, and 60 million daily users for the mobile version.