Zoom Video Communications Inc, a video conferencing platform said on Monday that it has renamed its chat product and added some features, including third party integration, as it looks to compete with rivals including Microsoft’s Teams and Slack.
The video calling app’s calling feature, now known as Zoom Team Chat, will also include features such as the ability to share in-meeting chat to Team Chat, schedule a meeting from chat or channel. Moreover, the features will be released by the end of the month.
Notably, Zoom competes with WeChat Work, Microsoft Teams, Cisco WebEx and Slack, and faces an uphill task of onboarding high-paying clients to sustain its growth at a time when several firms are shifting to hybrid work.
To recall, last month, Zoom cut its annual profit and revenue forecasts as demand cools off from pandemic highs. Shares of the video conferencing platform were up one per cent to $83.43 and but the stocks were down 55 per cent in the year up to Friday close.
Earlier this month, it was reported that the fiscal second-quarter results from Zoom Video Communications were the toughest yet for the videoconferencing provider. Revenue for the quarter ended July 31 rose only eight per cent year over year to about $1.1 billion. That was about two per cent below the midpoint of the company’s guidance range and missed Wall Street’s consensus forecast for the first time since Zoom went public in 2019.
The video conferencing app also marked the first instance of single-digit growth on record for the company that brought videoconferencing to the home-bound masses; Zoom has averaged 176 per cent year-over-year growth over the previous eight quarters.
Zoom’s revenue forecast for the current quarter was also about four per cent below analysts’ targets. In addition, the company trimmed its previous outlook for the full fiscal year ending in January, citing a mix of unfavorable exchange rates, weakness in its online business segment that serves consumers and small businesses, and a more typical pattern of closing sales deals for its enterprise side in the back half of the fiscal year. Its shares slid eight per cent after-hours Monday.
(With inputs from Reuters)
Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News.
