Is Facebook competing with Zoom now?

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I see stories on line now that Facebook has announced the “Facebook Messenger” app as a standalone app as opposed to an insertion on top of the FB platform.

The security issues (real or not) will eat into their commercial customer base. If the Facebook app is better than the old app that was a facebook plug-in, it will eat into their non-business customers. Many of those aren’t paying anyway, but it is another loss of convertible users.

I don’t have a Facebook account. Has anyone with a Facebook account tested it and compared to their experience with Zoom?

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I really like Zoom, and I own it. Bought more today, actually. My daughter’s preschool tried virtual learning last week with Google Meet and changed this week to Zoom. Zoom was so much easier and better. It’s just an easy, better product.

That being said, my wife is from South America. She calls her family 3-5 times per week. Every single time it is video calls, and it is ALWAYS through FB messenger. Her father refuses to make a FB account, but he has messenger because that is the only way he talks to his 2 daughters who live in the USA. FB Messenger allows multi videos like zoom, and it’s always free without any ads. They have no incentive to ever change to zoom, and I can guarantee you they never will.

I know this is anecdotal, but FB Messenger is completely ingrained around the world for international families. My wife had a video call with 4 of her friends from college last week, and they used Whatsapp because that is how they chat with each other, and video for multi-users is just there for free.

Zoom has a huge TAM, but it’s never going to be for “virtual happy hours” or families calling their kids in other countries. NEVER.

It is 100% an investment for businesses and schools and not for the personal or family calls. FB and Whatsapp already have that market and people aren’t going to change that. However, those people weren’t going to pay for a service anyway, and my daughter’s preschool is paying for it because we can’t have in person classes anymore.

Epictetus (long ZM, not FB)

It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.

If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.

He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.

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Zoom has a huge TAM, but it’s never going to be for “virtual happy hours” or families calling their kids in other countries. NEVER.

Never say never. My family uses it about twice a week to connect.

Andy

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Never say never. My family uses it about twice a week to connect.

Andy

And how much do you pay?

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Never say never. My family uses it about twice a week to connect.

Andy

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And how much do you pay?

It’s free for up to 10 people and it lasts about 45 minutes then you have to start it again. But 45 minutes feels about right.

Andy

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Zoom has a huge TAM, but it’s never going to be for “virtual happy hours” or families calling their kids in other countries. NEVER.

And yet there is a ton of stories about exactly that. I think you are making the mistake of thinking that people who are already doing these things with another technology and are thus fairly likely, for a while anyway, to stick with their existing, familiar technology is an indication of what people will use who have never done any of this before. What seems significant to me about what has happened to Zoom … and I’m not at all sure why it happened so strongly to Zoom … is that tons of people who never did any of this stuff before are now aware of the possibility and are interested and guided by the broad public sentiment into thinking that Zoom is the way to do it. Consumer-type people new to these applications are unlikely to do a systematic review of alternative products … they will just do what “everyone” is doing.

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I’ve learned over many decades that I don’t know a lot of things and never say never…case in point, who would have thought, the entire world would be in lock down? Or if our best doctors don’t know how this virus operates?

Our world is evolving and how it ends up is anyone guess…we’ll see how it goes a day at a time.

Lucky Dog

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Epictetus, here’s a sampling of who is on Zoom that is not a corporation: independent meditation teachers, acting instructors, life coaches, entrepreneurs, therapists, religious organizations and communities, families, friends, fitness centers (my local YMCA is offering classes). Facebook is no longer in favor with certain people, myself included, and Zoom offers more choices at an affordable price. It’s breathtaking to see how many people are getting up to speed on it so quickly.

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Anecdotal but my two daughters dance classes have transitioned to Zoom for all of their classes. My wife’s pilates studio (member not owner) has also been offering classes via Zoom. If we end up on lock down more than a few weeks total I could see a huge one time boost for Zoom as these businesses would run out of free time and not have much choice but to convert to paying customers for any possible revenue stream. I don’t think for a seconds though that they would continue to operate this way after things normalize. Hard to quantify but the mindshare Zoom is gaining right now has a lot of potential. Microsoft as an example even though barriers to switch in Zooms case would be less- Office had all the mindshare from enterprise use and became the defacto when word processing spread to smaller companies, to schools and home.

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Has anyone with a Facebook account tested it and compared to their experience with Zoom?

I’m sure whatever “privacy concerns” folks had with Zoom will be relieved by moving to Facebook.

🆁🅶🅱
For not in my bow do I trust, nor can my sword save me.

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I just finished a zoom based happy hour, my second in two days.

My extended family uses zoom for its group chats now as we have found it is the easiest program for the less tech savvy folks to use (including my parents, but not just my parents).

My law office uses it regularly now that we under a stay at home order. Skype is now a complete afterthought.

I foresee zoom getting pretty ubiquitous for a variety of professional and social uses.

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