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Comment by code4tee | Hacker News Reader

This may not be nice or demonstrating customer obsession but it is probably a good way for them to make money with business customers.

For better or worse Zoom has obtained “iPhone status” in corporate IT.

What killed the Blackberry was when decision makers had a personal iPhone and a work Blackberry and they finally turn up in the head of IT’s office and say “hey these things you’re making us use really suck, please just make it so we can use these iPhones which are soooo much better.”

I see exactly the same thing happening now with Zoom. I see IT types saying “but encryption” yadda yadda yadda and decision makers tuning up saying:

“This conferencing software you’re forcing us to use really stinks. I had a meeting with our soccer parents group on Zoom and it was so much better. Please switch us to this.”

A product that reaches that status stands to really disrupt the enterprise if they’re smart and take advantage of it.

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This is exactly it. Zoom is easy and pretty pleasant to use, but more importantly the execs that used to be able to just drag people into rooms and now find themselves having to use virtual rooms don't want to have to think about the tool. At the top tier bank I currently work for we switched to Zoom first on a trial basis beginning about a year ago, so way before the pandemic struck, so we'd mostly already switched. When the pandemic hit though, and 200+ attendee meetings became a thing, the higher ups realized just how smooth Zoom can be and went all in. Now there are conversations about how to enable screen sharing via zoom since we still need to use Citrix to log on to machines, rather than just having access to a VPN. A year ago, that was a no-go zone in discussions with IT, but now in no small part thanks to zoom it's a serious conversation.

If zoom can capitalize on this and stay the darling of enterprise while simple enough that anyone cares to use it, at low cost, they'll absolutely dominate this space within a couple of years I'm sure. I'd be surprised if they aren't acquired by Apple, Google or Microsoft, frankly.

I'd be very surprised if Google or Microsoft acquired them because it would set them back close to $90bln (75% premium on market cap). Google and Microsoft IMO will give Zoom the treatment Snap received from Facebook. Imitate all features, integrate them into large ecosystem and user base, then ignore them into irrelevance.

Microsoft is probably in a position to do that, you’re right. Their standing in enterprise is solid. Google though? I doubt it.

We use GSuite and Google Meet, there is already some features from Zoom that are recently added like a better tiled/grid layout, and I believe some moderation features are coming out soon.

We already have many Google Meet room with dedicated hardware and it's quite intuitive to use.

I use G Apps and Google subtly pushes Google meeting options - particularly in mail.

Microsoft have already started doing that. Recent version of Teams have supported more than 4 camera visible on any one screen and virtual backgrounds. Popular features Zoom has had for a while.

Why would it cost 75% premium?

It was the other way around for me. I used to use hangouts for personal calls and zoom for work calls. Zoom was so much better I started using it for personal calls. My friends at some of the “popular” companies who use their in house tools bemoan how much they suck compared to Zoom now. So yes you’re right. But outside those popular companies zoom and webex has been the standard enterprise tools. Zoom especially has been popular among enterprises way before the pandemic.

Edit: their conference room support with the iPad app was especially good. Most people won’t use that in a personal capacity. But it’s one of the biggest selling points at enterprises. People just find it easy to use. I don’t remember us calling “AV support” in a long time.

Who uses Jitsi and Zoom and still wants Zoom? Fuck's sake, our industry is in trouble.

Jitsi doesn't perform as well as Zoom for a ton of people, and most people outside of tech circles haven't heard of it. It's a miracle people are using Zoom instead of webex or Teams/Lync, honestly, since those have both been around forever.

Perform in what way?

WebEx over Jitsi?! I must be missing something huge, here.

Can you host a 500 person meeting on Jitsi? I think the answer is no, but might be wrong.

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