To compete with Microsoft Corp. Teams, Zoom Video Communications Inc. is adding word processing and trying out new meeting features.
The publication says that, as mentioned before its annual conference, Zoom plans to offer collaborative document editing like Google Docs by 2024.
Chief Product Officer Smita Hashim said that information from Zoom talks and summaries made by AI would be added to this tool, making it more useful.
Even though its success has led to a considerable rise in sales, reaching $4.1 billion between 2020 and 2022, Zoom has had problems as offices have reopened and competition has gotten tougher.
Analysts, however, forecast a modest 2% or less increase in sales over the next few quarters. Zoom is adding business tools that aren’t just video talks to its suite to help it grow again.
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Backstory
Zoom’s office phone service, which brings in about $500 million a year, and its customer service centre, which has more than 500 clients, were both early successes.
While usage rates for tools like email and calendar released last year are still unknown, recent patent filings show that Zoom is actively working on new features.
One of these innovations is the ability to add interactive virtual objects to meetings for things like product advertising or education. Another is a feature that can read the nonverbal cues of the people in the meeting and tell when someone wants to talk.
According to the International Data Corporation, Zoom only holds about 7% of the market for communication and collaboration software, with Microsoft Teams dominating at 42%, despite its impressive videoconferencing app quality.
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Zoom and its officials have told regulators in the US and EU that they are worried about how Microsoft’s products get special treatment because of how they are designed and priced.
Zoom keeps coming up with new ideas. In September, it added AI features like call summarisation and message writing, which are included in paid plans at no extra cost. This shows that these features will be free for users.