Zoom exploring new features as workforce get back to offices

Zoom Video Communications is exploring new-age technologies to tap the hybrid working model that is set to take shape with the waning of the pandemic and people getting back to the office, said its head for the India and Saarc markets.

Sameer Raje said plans were afoot to go beyond being just a video-calling application to a collaboration platform. The new-age technologies that are being explored to add features to the Zoom platform would make it “more cool”, accessible and more relevant, as the world gets back to work in the office in some form or the other, Raje said.

“It could be avatars, it could be a virtual world, it could be virtual interaction, it could be IoT or multiple other things,” he told. The Nasdaq-listed video-communications company posted revenue of $4.099 billion, up 55%, last year.

But, Zoom, which became a household name during the pandemic, has seen growth slow in the last few quarters. During November 2021-January 2022 (the company’s fiscal year ends in January), its revenue rose 21% to $1.071 billion, which was a deceleration from the 35% growth it reported in the previous quarter and 367% in the January 2021 quarter. The stock has slumped over 38% year-to-date.

Raje said Zoom as a platform could be embedded into any application, into a company workstreams, or with different technologies. “Imagine you could manage the air-conditioner through the Zoom interface or manage the blinds of a conference room through the Zoom. That’s the Internet of Things. The large videoconferencing rooms are now getting transformed. You don’t need multiple applications or multiple devices to manage that. You can do it through a single consolidated device and an app which is Zoom,” he said.