Zoom to launch email, calendar services

KARACHI/ISLAMABAD:

After the incredible increase in its popularity and use in 2020, Zoom is planning to support its growing empire by venturing into email and calendar services.

A tech winner of 2020 due to its user friendly video calls service, Zoom is now developing an email and calendar service, reported The Information.

Zoom might launch the service “very early” in 2021, according to the informants.

Zoom aims to launch an innovative email technology for a “next generation” experience instead of replicationg existing services.

The leak indicates Zoom wants to create a single platform that offers video calls, email as well as other productivity tools.

The company has declined to comment.

Zoom will have to compete with Gmail and Outlook who are heavyweights in email to be a success.

Earlier, Zoom Video Communications Inc warned on Monday its gross margins would remain under pressure going into 2021 as the surging number of free users of its video conferencing service makes it hard to offset a spike in costs to maintain its growth.

Shares of the company, which have risen about sevenfold this year fueled by the meteoric rise in demand in video conferencing for work, school or socializing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, fell 5% after the bell, despite upbeat fourth-quarter forecasts.

Zoom operates some of its own data centers, but it also relies on cloud computing services from outside vendors such as Amazon.com and Oracle Corp, meaning it must bear costs for free users.

Those bills, driven in part by a jump in free users in the third quarter as millions of students and teachers started new school semesters, pushed down Zoom’s gross profit margins to 66.7%, below analysts’ estimates of 72.1%, and its pre-pandemic average of around 80%.