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Zoom, the video conferencing company, is reportedly working on web-based applications for email and calendars in the latest expansion of its offerings.
Dreamstime
Zoom video communication
in recent months has made a steady push to expand its product list by adding software for conference rooms (Zoom Rooms), cloud-based telephony (Zoom Phone) and an event market (OnZoom).
And now Zoom (ticker: ZM) plans to enter the email and calendar software market.
According to The Information, Zoom has begun developing a web-based email service, “and may 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 case.” The report also says that Zoom is “researching” to build a calendar application and is considering developing company library software.
The story goes that Zoom CEO Eric Yuan has considered expanding the company’s core offering to include a complete set of communication tools, including email, messaging and productivity tools – a move that will put the company in head-to-head competition with both
Microsoft
(MSFT) and
Alphabet‘s
(GOOGL) Google.
Zoom declined to comment on the report.
The Covid-19 pandemic drove an explosion in the use of video conferencing in 2020, and Zoom has been a major recipient of the trend – revenue in the company’s most recent quarter increased 367%. But investors are starting to ask tough questions about how the company will fare in 2021, when competition is rising and many students and knowledge workers are likely to return to classrooms and offices at some point next year.
The cloud-based communications market is becoming crowded. Microsoft has aggressively pushed Teams, a unified communications package that includes messaging, video, and other tools that it comes with its Office 365 productivity suite. And Google has a large base of Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Hangouts users. (It is what Barrons users together with
Slack Technologies
(OCCUPATION).)
In the meantime
RingCentral
(RNG) recently unveiled a new combined video and collaboration tool called Glip, which offers the service for free to up to 100 users.
Cisco Systems
(CSCO) has revised WebEx and added new collaboration features. And of course,
Salesforce.com
(CRM) recently agreed to pay $ 27.7 billion in cash and shares for Slack.
The zoom bar on Wednesday is down 5.9% to $ 384.91. While the stock is still up more than 460% for the year to date, Zoom shares have retreated $ 200 from their October high and lost approximately 35% of their value.
Write to Eric J. Savitz at [email protected]