4 ms·

It seems to me to be a missed opportunity. If you believe Zoom is merely a video conferencing app then of course Zoom is only meaningful as that. But remote w

It seems to me to be a missed opportunity. If you believe Zoom is merely a video conferencing app then of course Zoom is only meaningful as that. But remote work is not going away and there is an opportunity to support it by being more than simply video conferencing. Zoom is a remote work product. Zoom says there's a lot of remote issues. That says to me that there is an opportunity to dogfood their own product development. Just going back to the office is a huge waste of potential.

idealboy 3y ago
Totally agree. Why not use this as an opportunity to explore the problem their users are presumably facing?
theptip 3y ago
In some sense, yes a missed opportunity. On the other hand, their customers are voting with their feet; most are returning to office. I would characterize it more as a bet that didn’t pay off. In 2020 it was a no-brainer to bet on substantially more remote work, and Zoom was one of the best-positioned to make that bet. In 2023 that bet looks way lower in EV. They still have upside potential but I don’t think anyone realistically expects that the F500 are going full or even majority remote anymore. Even with hindsight it seems a good bet, I don’t think they incorrectly evaluated the information they had or could have been expected to have.
- wvenable 3y ago
  In my industry (not tech, but white collar) a ton of companies have downsized their office space to where it's now impossible for everyone to work in the office. And because of that, there will always be remote work in this industry as a whole because it's a valuable perk. Companies that don't offer full or partial remote are at a hiring disadvantage. Remote work is a relatively new market that Zoom accidentally fell into. However, they don't seem to have the leadership to capitalize on that early lead and they'll eventually become irrelevant as other companies build video conferencing as a mere feature of a bigger remote work platform.
  - theptip 3y ago
    I think it’s likely to pan out as you say; video calls are a feature not a product, and Google Workplace / MS Office should be able to get to parity soon (though the sluggish improvements to Meet make me hesitant to bet it’ll be this decade). That said, you could make the same argument about Dropbox and they are still around.

idealboy 3y ago

Totally agree. Why not use this as an opportunity to explore the problem their users are presumably facing?

theptip 3y ago

In some sense, yes a missed opportunity. On the other hand, their customers are voting with their feet; most are returning to office. I would characterize it more as a bet that didn’t pay off. In 2020 it was a no-brainer to bet on substantially more remote work, and Zoom was one of the best-positioned to make that bet. In 2023 that bet looks way lower in EV. They still have upside potential but I don’t think anyone realistically expects that the F500 are going full or even majority remote anymore. Even with hindsight it seems a good bet, I don’t think they incorrectly evaluated the information they had or could have been expected to have.

wvenable 3y ago
In my industry (not tech, but white collar) a ton of companies have downsized their office space to where it's now impossible for everyone to work in the office. And because of that, there will always be remote work in this industry as a whole because it's a valuable perk. Companies that don't offer full or partial remote are at a hiring disadvantage. Remote work is a relatively new market that Zoom accidentally fell into. However, they don't seem to have the leadership to capitalize on that early lead and they'll eventually become irrelevant as other companies build video conferencing as a mere feature of a bigger remote work platform.
- theptip 3y ago
  I think it’s likely to pan out as you say; video calls are a feature not a product, and Google Workplace / MS Office should be able to get to parity soon (though the sluggish improvements to Meet make me hesitant to bet it’ll be this decade). That said, you could make the same argument about Dropbox and they are still around.