Zoom may launch email service to compete with Google and Microsoft
Zoom Video Communications, which had a blockbuster year and became an essential platform for online office meetings and family gatherings amid the Covid-19 pandemic, is working an email service that will compete with Google’s Gmail and Microsoft’s Outlook.
“The company has begun developing a web email service and might offer a very early version of the product to some customers next year,” US digital media company The Information reported.
The new service will aim to offer a “next-generation” experience instead of merely copying the features that users already have, the news portal said. Zoom also plans to release a calendar application.
The shares of the video- streaming platform grew by more than 500 per cent this year and new revenue streams may make Zoom less of a single-purpose platform and help it compensate for a potential decline or stagnant growth once the coronavirus pandemic subsides and life returns to normal.
To explore new technology, Zoom spent $25 million on research and development in the third quarter that ended on October 31, an increase of 80 per cent from a year ago.
The R&D spending was about 3 per cent of the total revenue earned during the quarter.
People, businesses, schools, universities turned to Zoom during the coronavirus-related movement restrictions and lockdowns.
The Nasdaq-listed company’s third-quarter net profit stood at $198.4m, up from $2.2m in the same period a year ago. Revenue for the period rose by 367 per cent to $777.2m.
This month, Zoom increased its revenue outlook for the fourth quarter and the full financial year.
Fourth-quarter revenue is expected to be between $806m and $ 811m while full- year revenue has been forecast at between $2.57 billion and $ 2.58bn – more than three times its financial earnings last year.
Zoom’s biggest competitors in the videoconferencing domain – Google (Meet) and Microsoft (Teams) – already offer a bundle of products that include email services and calendar apps.