Tech Companies Gun for Zoom; Video Conferencing Race
Zoom, the booming video conferencing platform, is challenged by giants in the social media and tech industry. Companies such as Google (Alphabet), Facebook, and Microsoft are trying to rival the success of the controversial platform.
Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, Zoom has become a household name. Regular people, businesses, students, organizations, and more have been utilizing it as the new normal shifts to video calling.
The technology company has successfully capitalized on the new form of communication despite controversies. Zoom has been bombarded with issues about security and privacy following the Zoomboombing incident.
However, as the state lockdowns continue, the platform has become a lifeline for schools and businesses across the globe.
Giants in the tech industry have noticed the popularity and are looking to jump onboard the demand. Facebook, Google, and Microsoft are ramping up their respective games to compete with Zoom.
Technology news reports cite that all the platforms already have their loyal followings. Zoom has leverage in the game with its hold on existing user loyalty.
However, considering the popularity of the three challengers, it’s possible that they will finally dethrone the platform.
Last week, the social media giant, Facebook, announced its new feature called Messenger rooms. This doesn’t require users to have Facebook accounts and will allow up to 50 people to meet digitally with no time limit.
Meanwhile, the search engine behemoth topped Facebook and Zoom’s offer. Alphabet unveiled its Google Meet, where users can freely hold conference calls with up to 100 people with no time limit.
These offers easily rival Eric Yuan’s company that allows 100 users to have video conference calls for as long 40 minutes at a time.
300 Million Daily Callers
Yesterday, Zoom announced that it had mistakenly published the content of its previous week’s blog. The company clarified that is has surpassed 300 million daily meeting participants amidst the lockdown.
The staggering number is an evident result of people using modern technology to cope with the lockdown dilemma.
The shares of the video conferencing app immediately fell in the stock market following the news. Media outlets from around the world have continuously monitored and reported the daily meeting participant count of the company.
Its competitors can use the slip up as an opening as they seek to steal a portion of Zoom’s users.
Microsoft Inc announced earlier this week that its Teams has an average of 75 million daily active users. And on one particular day in April, the number jumped to 200 million meeting participants.
Meanwhile, Cisco Systems’ video conferencing application called Webex said that it’s seeing a record of 325 million participants in March.
