Software
Zoom can launch an e-mail service and calendar app to compete with Google and Microsoft.
The Zoom video conferencing platform had a blockbuster year, with its stock price rising more than 500 percent due to the unparalleled spike in remote work caused by the coronavirus pandemic. But now, according to a recent article from The Details, the business is looking to grow beyond the office video chat and into new markets, namely email and calendar services.
The organization is also working on an e-mail product, which the study notes will be a web e-mail service that Zoom could start testing as early as next year. The calendar app looks further forward, and it's not clear if creation has yet begun. But both ideas are smart ways for Zoom to pursue, particularly if businesses start taking workers back to the workplace and focus on video conferencing declines as COVID-19 vaccine delivery picks up by 2021. Zoom refused to comment on this article.
Many of Zoom's main rivals are video conferencing services packaged as part of wider business app suites, with the two highest being Microsoft's Office 365 platform and Google's rival Workplace package. Both of these services deliver calendar, email, and video conferencing products, so it makes sense that Zoom will turn at email and calendar to try and fill out its options and make Zoom less of a single-purpose tool.
The Knowledge report has a range of other telling signs that the company is interested in developing a full business software suite, including work listings for "exciting chat features" and its current integrations with other applications like Asana and Dropbox. But there is still the risk that the corporation chooses to pause to see if the move back to workplace is impacting companies and whether remote work is a crucial factor in the future.
