After a breakout year due to more people working from home during the pandemic, Zoom is planning to expand beyond video conferencing with a new web email and calendar service.
According to a new report from The Information, the company could roll out a web email service as early as next year as well as its own calendar app at a later date.
The news outlet spoke with two people with direct knowledge of the matter who claim Zoom has already begun working on a web email service which could launch in beta in 2021. The report also revealed that the company has been looking into creating is own calendar app.
Zoom has seen tremendous growth this year and currently 350m people use its video conferencing software each day. This is a massive increase compared to the same period last year when the service had just 10m daily meeting participants. Expanding into email and launching a calendar will allow Zoom to build on this momentum and ensure the company remains a household name even after the pandemic.
Enterprise push
Zoom’s upcoming email service and calendar app will enable the company to better compete against tech giants Microsoft and Google which offer both services as well as their own video conferencing software.
One of the main reasons many users end up choosing Meet or Teams for video calls instead of Zoom is due to the fact that their organizations already use Microsoft and Google’s software. Therefore by creating its own email and calendar services, the company can keep more users in its ecosystem and prevent them from turning to rival services.
By launching its own email service and calendar app, Zoom can remain relevant even after employees return to the office and no longer need to depend on its video conferencing software to connect with coworkers while working remotely.
Via The Verge
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