Dive Brief:
- Zoom will launch company-hosted mail and calendar services, the company announced Tuesday. The features will roll out in beta, but Zoom did not immediately share a timeline for general availability.
- The company will also launch integrations with other providers within the app, bringing users' communication and scheduling tools together in the Zoom platform, "whether they're using Microsoft 365, Google, or our own Zoom Mail and Calendar services," said Cari Dick, product marketing manager for the Zoom Platform.
- The features aim to reduce user toggling between apps, adding more functions to the company's all-in-one product, Zoom One.
Dive Insight:
Zoom's latest product enhancements are part of a broader strategy to centralize user activity in its product line as laid out by the June announcement of Zoom One. The bundle brings together chat, phone, whiteboard, meetings, and other productivity and collaboration solutions in one place.
The product launches are taking place at a time of slower financial growth for the collaboration staple. The company's Q2 2023 earnings report saw year-over-year revenue increase 8% for the period ending July 31, though it came in just below the low end of its guidance for the quarter.
In an October research note, J.P. Morgan warned Zoom will come up against a key growth test in the coming months, citing a contract renewal period for pandemic-era enterprise deals.
The company, pressed to maintain and expand the customer base it earned during the meteoric growth spurt of 2020, has responded with upgrades and enhancements to its product line. In 2022, the company has "built and launched more than 1,500 features and enhancements on the Zoom platform," said Eric Yuan, CEO at Zoom, in the announcement Tuesday.
Despite concerns over worsening economic indicators, IT spending for 2023 will largely be spared from spending projections, much to the benefit of providers such as Zoom.
Software spending looks to be a particularly resilient category, as Gartner projections expect the segment to grow by 22.3% next year, the highest area of IT growth.
