Zoom Video Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:ZM) is planning to expand its services beyond video conferencing services with email service and calendar app. The company’s business grew tremendously this year with its stock increasing over 500% as demand for remote working due to the pandemic grew.
Zoom launching Email and calendar services
Currently, the Zoom app is the most used video conferencing app and already the company is working on an email service that it could start piloting in early 2021. However, the calendar app seems to be father off and it is not clear if the company has commenced development of the app. Although there are still no official reports from the company about the new services this however seems like a good avenue to explore. It will be an important path especially when companies begin bringing workers back to the offices and use video conference drops with COVID-19 vaccinations already commencing.
The move will help Zoom compete with rivals such as Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) which have video conferencing services bundled into a wide variety of app suites. Microsoft offers the Office 365 platform while Google has its Workspace bundle. The platforms offer email, calendar, and video conferencing services and therefore it makes sense for Zoom to venture into space with additional offering rather than being a single-purpose platform.
Zoom wants to develop an enterprise app suite
The company has added some security-based tool to its video conferencing app and desktop versions to keep cybercriminals off. Among the features introduced is “Suspend Participant Activities” which allows a host to abuse a meeting and eject criminals from the meeting.
There have been telling signs that Zoom is building a full enterprise app suite that includes job posting and new chat features. Also, the integration with apps such as Dropbox and Asana is an indication that the company wants to develop an enterprise app suite. However, the company could wait until normal office work resumes to see how that impacts its businesses before these rollouts.
