I sort of hate to add yet another post related to zoom, but MSFT teams saw a 1000% increase in video conferencing in March. This is another data point we can use to evaluate zoom - as in, if this is what happened with the #2 videoconferencing solution, imagine what sort of increase Zoom saw.
https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/09/microsoft-says-video-calls…
MSFT teams saw a 1000% increase in video conferencing in March…if this is what happened with the #2 videoconferencing solution, imagine what sort of increase Zoom saw.
Great point! I’ll be looking forward to hearing more on April 29: https://mediastream.microsoft.com/events/2020/2004/Images/Cu…
Bear
Another quick follow up - I would guess that MSFT teams caters mostly to enterprise customers (which is also historically the bread and butter of zoom, and where most of the revenue will actually come from). So this statistic would be a proxy to Zoom’s enterprise customers more so than its new popularity with non-enterprise customers.
So imagine if Zoom’s enterprise customers are now making 1000% more video calls.
Quick summary points from the article:
–Again, the overall number of video calls in Teams grew by over 1,000% in March
–Back on March 16, the company reported 900 million meeting minutes in Teams .
–Now, less than a month later, it says that it saw a new daily record of 2.7 billion meetings in one on March 31
–Overall, the number of users who go on camera has doubled since before this crisis began
MSFT teams saw a 1000% increase in video conferencing in March
1000% = 10X
Zoom’s daily users ballooned to more than 200 million in March from a previous maximum total of 10 million, the video conferencing app’s CEO Eric Yuan said on Wednesday (https://venturebeat.com/2020/04/02/zooms-daily-active-users-… )
200M/10M = 20X
So, if we believe these numbers, then Zoom grew twice as much as MS Teams.
The issue may be that all 10X users on MS Teams represent revenue to MSFT. But, how many of the 20X users on Zoom are free accounts? More than half doesn’t seem unlikely to me.
I’ve been critical of Zoom’s security practices, but what I’m also seeing is that not only the public, but people in software engineering who should know better, are over-reacting. The “mistake” about claiming E2E is indeed bad, but it should be pointed out that only a very small percentage of WebEx meetings actually have E2E engaged.
I also just saw that JP Morgan suspended a stockbroker over his use of WhatsApp to other brokers, because its (real) E2E encryption doesn’t let JP Morgan see what the stockbroker has said. This isn’t the first such action. See https://www.marketwatch.com/story/whats-up-with-whatsapp-jp-… for others. Kind of an interesting take that a company may not want its employees to use E2E encryption since it wouldn’t let them get at what was presented or said.
And while it’s great that Zoom is hiring outside security consultants, it really sucks that they’re only doing this now. This is standard and expected behavior for any such software being sold to corporations, at least in my view.
So, if we believe these numbers, then Zoom grew twice as much as MS Teams.
From the article itself:
…overall number of video calls in Teams grew by more than 1,000% in March.
Number of video calls not the same as number of users. In a way, it supports your argument. Zoom’s # of users grew more than # of video calls on Teams. That’s impressive.
And while it’s great that Zoom is hiring outside security consultants, it really sucks that they’re only doing this now. This is standard and expected behavior for any such software being sold to corporations, at least in my view.
That they have just made a high profile full time hire in this area does not mean that they didn’t do anything before.
Number of video calls not the same as number of users. In a way, it supports your argument. Zoom’s # of users grew more than # of video calls on Teams. That’s impressive.
Absolutely - the increase in usage and users could have produced zero increase in revenues for Microsoft as the usage and user increase could have come from its pre-existing installed Office 365 base that is just starting to use software they already had. (Our company already has access to it via Office 365 and is starting to consider using it versus our Blue Jeans solution).
For Zoom - new users are not pre-existing and some (and it’s a question of how much) will be revenue generating users.
Agreed both the magnitude of the impact and the revenue implications is much more significant with Zoom than MS.
Ant
Number of video calls not the same as number of users.
Good point!
That they have just made a high profile full time hire in this area does not mean that they didn’t do anything before.
The CEO has admitted that they didn’t take security seriously before. Proof:
Zoom CEO Tells NPR He Never Thought ‘Seriously’ About Online Harassment Until Now
https://www.opb.org/news/article/npr-zoom-ceo-tells-npr-he-n…
Yuan spoke with NPR All Things Considered co-host Ari Shapiro, who asked whether the Zoom CEO would prioritize security after a series of missteps. “If you asked me this question one year ago, I would hesitate to say yes. But now, absolutely yes,” Yuan answered. “We’re going to transform our business to a privacy-and-security-first mentality.”
and
Yuan now says he underestimated the threat of harassment – a hallmark of so many online platforms – on Zoom. “I never thought about this seriously,” he said.
And yeah, “online harassment” is not exactly the same as “security,” but I’ll argue it’s similar enough. Yuan’s statements in the NPR interview support my previously stated view that Zoom has been laser focused on usability and reducing click count at the expense of security. That’s now changing.
They were never meant to be a consumer platform. I don’t see any real reason to spend a lot of time worrying about online bullying or harassment in a primarily business centric tool.
Serious question, does Slack have a lot of protections from online harassment? If you post the link to a publicly available Slack board, is there a way to keep people from spamming it or posting profanity or lewd messages?
It not having occurred to one that some loons would start looking to use the tool for on-line harassment … this sort of thing being something I don’t believe I have ever heard of before … does not equate with not having given any consideration to security. The mere existence of specialty products for government and the HIPAA crowd indicates deep existence of consideration of security … as does the cure for many issues being a new version which merely differs in default settings to solve many issues.
(Our company already has access to it via Office 365 and is starting to consider using it versus our Blue Jeans solution).
For Zoom - new users are not pre-existing and some (and it’s a question of how much) will be revenue generating users.
Agreed both the magnitude of the impact and the revenue implications is much more significant with Zoom than MS.
Ant
My company is primarily on BlueJeans, I spend 2 hours a day on a light day, 4 hours on average and had days that were 8 to 10 hours. My boss just recently moved our weekly team meeting over to Teams since we already have it as part of Office 365. I am not sure how the quality of Zoom is compared to BlueJeans but I don’t really understand paying for BlueJeans if Teams is available. The video quality has been compatible, the collaboration seems better and it seems more feature rich. I likely to start moving my own team meetings to Teams.
I am not sure how it financially benefits MS though unless the start increase the fee for Enterprise Office 365 over time if then can find more companies start depending on Teams as replacement for other collaboration tools.
