The company trying to dethrone Zoom

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Zoom have had a pretty remarkable journey to the top of the video conferencing food chain. Despite being around for just under ten years, the company, headquartered in California, have made substantial growth in paying customers, business users and revenue in the last twelve months.

Now I probably don't need to tell you the reason behind such growth- but let's just say that the majority of users have jumped onto the surging videotelephony service as a result of a lockdown-inducing virus. It serves as an innovative method of connecting multiple users via online video calling, supplemented with chat functioning and some rather funky augmented backgrounds.

But the influence of this SaaS (Software as a Service) supersedes the expectations around performance indicators and objectives initially made by Zoom. Revenue for the business has grown by 169%- smashing figures from its previous year. Zoom have also left their mark on the industry as a whole, registering over 300 million active users globally (up from the 10 million in late 2019).
Is Zoom better than Slack?


But will Zoom be here to stay? 
In terms of a platform that provides connectivity between employees- it is rivalled by many big players in the industry, including the likes of Cisco, Adobe, Google and now Facebook with added features to their messenger service. But as we delve deeper into 2020, we find ourselves inherently using Zoom as a verb for digital communication.

"Google it"
"Order it from Amazon"
"Zoom me later"

But another software that could rival Zoom and continue to push the industry forward is Slack. Also based in America, this communicative platform is taking notes from other platforms (including Zoom) and creating an all in one package. It could be argued that this platform is even perfecting such ideas by: 

  • Providing a dedicated channel that keeps all team members up to date (something that Microsoft Teams struggles with).
  • An easier workflow and communicative process with vendors and external partners
  • Partnering with some of the well known businesses mentioned above.

What could we see from Slack?
What do most companies do when they see a rise in the usage of their product? They raise the prices to capitalise on the ever-changing dynamic of the market and Slack won't be any different. An article released last year highlighted that if this SaaS were too increase their monthly membership prices, they would see a jump in operating profits and an improved presence on the stock market.

Despite offering a free service alongside paid memberships, the notion of price increases may push customers away to those cheaper alternatives. It's a tough market with some pretty dominant competitors and if recent news headlines are anything to go by, Slack might have to fight for their place on the market.
Zoom vs Slack
Location: Worcester, UK

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