Zoom mail after Zoom call? 2020's breakout tech startup is going beyond video meetings
After the stupendous success of Zoom calling in the pandemic, the Silicon Valley startup is planning to launch email and calendar services in 2021.
There is little doubt that Zoom will go down as the tech story of 2020.
Riding on the pandemic-led lockdowns that made 'work from home' the global new normal, the video conferencing platform crossed 300 million daily meeting participants. But now, it wants to go beyond its core video meeting product.
Zoom is reportedly building its own enterprise email service and calendar app to take on two giants in the space — Google and Microsoft. The new products are slated to launch in 2021.
The development was first reported by The Information.
"The company has begun developing a web email service and might offer a very early version of the product to some customers next year," it stated.
While the Zoom email service could roll out in Q1 2021, the calendar app could take longer. Zoom is assessing how remote working could change when employees start going back to offices post the wider availability of COVID-19 vaccines.
Zoom Founder Eric Yuan
Zoom knows that hinging its future on a single product may not be a judicious ploy. Hence, it plans to create a suite of enterprise products like Google and Microsoft.
In an earlier interaction with YourStory, Abe Smith, Head of International Markets, Zoom, said,
"Both in people and infrastructure technology, there’s a bright future for us. As long as we can continue to focus on developing the right partnerships and servicing the right customers, there's a lot of room for growth in the SMB space, mid-market enterprise, government, and education."
Zoom, in fact, had made its expansion goals clear in October when it launched events marketplace OnZoom and native app store Zapps at Zoomtopia 2020.
OnZoom is targeted at small businesses and micro-entrepreneurs and can be used to host one-time or recurring events for up to 1,000 attendees. Businesses can also securely list and sell tickets, track sales and monetisation, and reach new audiences through the OnZoom platform.
Zapps, meanwhile, is an integrated app store within Zoom to boost workplace productivity and enable seamless real-time collaboration. Zoom has already partnered with 35 software providers, including Asana, Coursera, Dropbox, Hubspot, Salesforce, Slack, Zendesk, and more to build out the Zapps platform.
A '[email protected]' email id wouldn't be a bad thing then!
Edited by Megha Reddy