Why does Microsoft say Zoho is the Fake Office? | Hacker News Reader

Why does Microsoft say Zoho is the Fake Office?

fakeoffice.org

41 pointsashishk22 comments

The reason I have never tried Zoho is because I can't believe anyone could create that many awesome apps, which leads me to believe they are all mediocre and just checking another box on the "how many apps can we build list".

I don't know if this is true, but its the reason I still haven't spent the time to try them.

It is a 1000 people company. I believe that a 1000 people company can definitely create that many products.

Really? Microsoft has 90k people and has only managed to create a handful of good products (and that depends on your definition of good).

When Microsoft released the killer version of Word in 1990 they only had 4000 employees (according to wolframalpha).

that's an interesting reason to not try something. i don't entirely understand the reasoning.

did you also not try google when it launched because they didn't have as many employees as yahoo?

Its not the number of people that bothers me, it's the lack of focus. Google was very focused in the beginning.

Really interesting point. I feel the same way and didn't realize it.

I've used Zoho's Sheet and Writer products, and both are excellent (they blow their Google Docs equivalents out of the water). But I've looked at their other apps, specifically CRM and Meeting, and dismissed both without a fair look in favor of competitors that focus specifically on those products.

I thought the same thing until I tried Zoho Docs & Zoho Project.

Re Zoho Docs, Office is still better, but Zoho Docs does the doc and docx rendering much better than Google docs. When I have a doc or docx file with an image or 2 & some formatting google docs obliterates it, but zoho mostly plays nice. Overall, I really like Zoho docs.

Re Zoho Projects, we have a small distributed team & really like zoho projects. Tried Basecamp & it felt sort-of clunky. I suppose it's a preference thing when it comes down to it.

Re Zoho CRM, it sucks.... so 2 out of 3 of the apps I've tried are way above average, the other is just as good as free/open-source vTiger.

Because it is?

Let's be honest - everyone is out there chasing Office for features and functionality. That they've pulled it off with Javascript and a web browser is insanely impressive, but nonetheless, they are all imitating the old-timers in a 20 year old product space.

MS Office is a copy-cat product, too.

15 years ago. It has been the industry leader for a long time.

s/leader //

Fixed that for you.

Reminds me of a story from Tony Robbins. This turnaround expert was hired to fix Six Flags. Now the Eureka moment came when the employees started to think of their business as being in league with Disneyland, instead of being in league with the local Midway fairs. So for Microsoft to give lip service to Zoho is really a terrible move on their part, since strategically they want their product to be on the same level as no one, but they just revealed that they don't feel that way about Office.

One thing that no company should do when selling a product, is show me an ad for some movie before a video that explains the product. I was interested in the CRM product for work but the ad before the sales pitch is poor form for a company trying to sell me something.

looks like a good marketing idea initially, but people trust microsoft and may take its word over some internet company with a funny name...

After seeing the link, I wanted to run here and say how awesome of a marketing idea this was. But then I read your comment and it got me thinking...

Within this little tech circle, I think it is great. Take something big, bad MS said; twist it, make it 2.0 and bam! Instant marketing...

However, what happens when someone else sees this website. It is going to entice them to try Zoho? I don't think so; if anything it will make them want to run far away and probably to MS.

I think they should have sat on this idea for a little longer and maybe cooler heads would have prevailed. I am very interested to see how this works for them!

This webpage is much better than the one launched earlier. Good luck :)

Let's see if this marketing works...

Because they are good at marketing

Arrogance. They think they own the business business.

Zoho is an awesome company and I have written many blog posts among them. But this sort of marketing is pathetic and doesn't suit any reputable company. It's simply childish. Stop it zoho. Nobody likes a cry baby.

I don't think they're being cry babies at all. They're just picking up a fumbled ball and running with it. Good luck to them I say.

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