Font size
Zoom, the video conferencing company, is supposedly working on web-based applications for email and calendars in the latest addition to its offering.
Dream time
Zoom video communication
has exerted steady pressure in recent months to expand the product range with conference room software (Zoom Rooms), cloud-based telephony (Zoom Phone) and an events marketplace (OnZoom).
And now Zoom (ticker: ZM) plans to enter the email and calendar software market.
According to The Information, Zoom has begun to develop a web-based email service, “and could offer a very early version of the product to some customers next year.” The story is attributed to “two people with direct knowledge of the matter”. The report also says Zoom is “investigating” building a calendar application and is considering developing corporate directory software.
The story alleges that Zoom CEO Eric Yuan is considering expanding the company’s core offering with a full set of communication tools, including email, messaging and productivity tools – a step that would put the company in direct competition with both.
Microsoft
(MSFT) and
Alphabet‘s
(GOOGL) Google.
Zoom declined to comment on the report.
The Covid-19 pandemic sparked an explosion in video conferencing use in 2020, and Zoom benefited greatly from this trend, with sales in the company’s most recent quarter up 367%. But investors are starting to ask tough questions about how the company will fare in 2021, as competition intensifies and many students and knowledge workers are likely to return to classrooms and offices next year.
The cloud-based communications market is getting busier. Microsoft has aggressively pushed Teams, a unified communications suite that includes messaging, video, and other tools that come with the Office 365 productivity suite. And Google has a large number of Gmail, Google Docs and Google Hangouts users. (That is what Barron’s users, along with
Slack Technologies
(WORK).)
Meanwhile,
RingCentral
(RNG) recently unveiled a new combined video and collaboration tool called Glip that offers the service for free for up to 100 users.
Cisco systems
(CSCO) overhauled WebEx and added new collaboration features. And of course,
Salesforce.com
(CRM) recently agreed to pay $ 27.7 billion in cash and stock for Slack.
Zoom share on Wednesday is down 5.9% to $ 384.91. While the stock is still up more than 460% so far, Zoom shares have retreated about $ 200 from their October peak, losing about 35% of their value.
Write to Eric J. Savitz at [email protected]