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As most of us have learned during the pandemic, managing all of those Zoom meetings really demands a calendar and currently that functionality is carried over to Outlook or Google Calendar.
That could change in the near future, as Zoom is reportedly looking to expand beyond video conferencing to email and calendar services, utilizing its massive growth during the pandemic and the fact that it is now a household brand.
According to The Information, Zoom is already working on an email web service that could be launched for testing next year, while the calendar service would be a longer-term goal.
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Zoom supports more than 3.5 trillion minutes of annual meetings and has more than 300 million participants in daily meetings, more than triple the 1 trillion minutes of Google Meet video calls worldwide this year.
The switch to email and calendar apps could also help Zoom guard against a future where people actually return to work after COVID-19 vaccines are distributed to the global population through 2021 and beyond.
The move to email and calendar applications has the potential to make Zoom more of a business productivity platform that competes with Microsoft Office 365 and Google Workspace.
At the enterprise, it would take the enterprise beyond voice, video, and unified communications and its traditional territory would compete with Cisco, Microsoft, and Avaya. It also has the potential to become a more consumer-centric brand.
Of course, with $ 1.9 billion in cash and equivalents, Zoom could make another acquisition after buying Keybase, the maker of end-to-end encrypted messaging and cloud storage.
Zoom is among its competitors Cisco Webex and LogMeIn GoToMeeting; providers of bundled productivity solutions with video functionality, including Microsoft Teams and Google G Suite and Meet; and PBX providers, including Avaya, RingCentral, and 8×8. In the consumer and small business space, it counts Amazon, Apple, and Facebook as key rivals.
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As Zoom pointed out in its latest 10Q filing with the SEC, it faces competition from rivals who can offer larger software packages.
“Certain competitors offer, or may offer in the future, free or lower priced products or services that compete with our platform, or they may bundle and offer a broader range of products and services than we do. Similarly, certain competitors may use marketing strategies that allow them to acquire customers at a lower cost than ours. “
