Zoom News

Investment Analysis Clubs Saul’s Investing Discussions
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From: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/17/style/zoom-parties-corona…

“On Sunday, nearly 600,000 people downloaded the app”

That’s 600,000 people who, when this is over, and they all return to school, work, wherever, will be familiar with Zoom. And when their organizations need a teleconferencing solution, they’ll all already be familiar with Zoom and it’s ease of use.

But no amount of planning could have anticipated the company’s emergence as a cultural phenomenon used to host parties, concerts, church services and art shows. Zoom could not have prepared to become a meme.

A cultural phenomenon. Zoom has become a household name faster than Netflix did! Let that sink in. Consider what NFLX has done over the past decade. Now consider where Zoom could be in that same time… Or faster.

This could be a pivotal moment for ZM if they don’t mess it up!

Paul

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My six year old is on Zoom right now with ten other six-year olds for her Kindergarten class.

It’s really cute. But also exciting that every kid now has “Zoom class” in their lexicon.

Eric

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What an incredible article on Zoom (and from the NY Times, no less)! Thanks so much Paul for posting it. It’s one of the most important news articles for our board that I’ve seen in a long time. It fits very well with Matt’s post the day before yesterday about “the beginning of something big.”

Here are links to the Times article and to Matts post:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/17/style/zoom-parties-corona…

https://discussion.fool.com/zm-in-15-years-34440249.aspx

Saul

A link to the Knowledgebase for this board is in the Announcements panel that is on the right side of every page on this board.

For some additions to the Knowledgebase, bringing it up to date, I’d advise reading several other posts linked to on the panel, especially “How I Pick a Company to Invest In,” and “Why My Investing Criteria Have Changed,” and “Why It Really is Different.”

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For full disclosure, I should mention that Zoom has passed Alteryx and Datadog to become my largest position.

Saul

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I have no position in Zoom, but noticed this on the Coupa CC. When asked about how the virus will impact their go-to-market strategy, Rob Bernshteyn (CEO) answered, “We are a very tech-savvy company and I’ve been on many, many Zoom meetings over the last seven to eight days, just two days, some with individuals in the sales team thinking about how to manage the sales account.”

It appears as if Zoom has become the undisputed leader in its space based on all the post shared on this board over the last few weeks.

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It appears as if Zoom has become the undisputed leader in its space based on all the post shared on this board over the last few weeks.

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A mssg board where the leader with a significant following, who has a large position in ZM, and in which many other board members have chosen to do the same, isn’t reflective of the overall market share of videoconferencing or UC tools in general. There is some bias here…echo chamber.

Zoom is definitely doing well. No question. They aren’t killing Microsoft or Cisco anytime soon though. Just like Arista didn’t kill Cisco.

I still haven’t shown my pretty face on a videocall in 15 years at my company.
Yesterday two colleagues had very clear video on Microsoft Teams on an internal call.

This isn’t new tech.
Leo Laporte and Tech TV used to do “Screensavers” and “Call for help” in late 1990’s and callers could call in with video chat.

Gotta run…got a webex call with client in 20 minutes.

Dreamer

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“if they don’t mess it up!”

Clearly this is the biggest test that Zoom has had of their ability to scale their technology, deal with bandwidth issues etc. I’ve not seen people complaining of their service so far but it’s worth keeping an eye out for that.

[I have had issues personally with Gotomeeting and resent when people send me invites with that app now, i usually counter with a Zoom invite].

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I work in the Bay Area for a large transportation company (4000 employees).

As info, with all the recent events they sent out an email and Teams is the chosen app we are to use for remote meetings…

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Apparently many millions of new users are not as happy with zoom. Presumably as they are forced into using it without prior use or desire for a resource like this.

https://www.androidpolice.com/2020/03/17/zooms-android-app-r…

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Dreamer - spare us your sanctimonious lectures on echo chambers. Most on this board rallied hard AGAINST Saul’s pick of Red Violet. So your point is both insulting and objectively wrong.

I am married to a high tech saleswoman whose livelihood often depends on doing video conferences and who is a fanatic fan of Zoom - for its reliability, simplicity and features. She had many disastrous experiences with Webex.

BD

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One question that’s been going through my mind with Zoom is how this increase in use impacts their bottom line. Costs scale with number of users - I assume they are renting servers from AWS or Azure. They are offering free use to schools around the world, so the number of users is going up dramatically without any corresponding increase in revenue. Does anyone here know how these factors scale for Zoom?

Paul

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re: Echo chamber / ZM

It’s not just our board! The ZM love is Fool-wide, and I’ve heard it mentioned on many of their podcasts and in several COVID-inspired chats the Fool has been having.

Dreamer does make an interesting point, though: This isn’t new tech.

What’s better than new tech? A brand that catches fire in the zeitgeist like Paypal or Netflix or Tesla or Nvidia.

What’s better than new tech? Something that puts a customer-focused spin on something everyone else is doing just well enough, like Shopify did with (e-commerce) websites.

What’s so great about new tech? From Betamax to Zscaler…the best tech doesn’t always lead to life-changing returns for a company’s stock.

It is difficult to add to ZM at these levels, especially when other great companies are available at a discount. But I’m doing it. I don’t have as large a position as Saul…mine is midsized…but I don’t want to wait altogether. #1 because I don’t want a 50% AYX position and a 35% CRWD position. But #2 because I am trying to think long term AND short term – and while ZM probably won’t go to a PS of 200 in the short term, I believe it will still look really attractive a year or two from now even if it never gets cheap.

Bear

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I… noticed this on the Coupa CC. When asked about how the virus will impact their go-to-market strategy, Rob Bernshteyn (CEO) answered:

“We are a very tech-savvy company and I’ve been on many, many Zoom meetings over the last seven to eight days,… some with individuals in the sales team thinking about how to manage the sales accounts.”

Thanks Major, for pointing that out.

When the CEO of one tech company casually mentions using another tech company as if it’s the only choice he considers, it seems to me that that indicates mind-share in a big way.

Saul

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My wife’s family decided the other evening to speak online. Two of her sisters still live in South Korea, while her other two sisters love here in LA close to us.

So five couples downloaded Zoom onto their laptops and computers and went online with an invite from one of the sisters in South Korea. Yes, her idea to use Zoom.

Our experience was fantastic. Loved it. Loved how the main camera shot keeps changing depending on who’s talking. We stayed on the call for two hours. We have all been together in the room at the same time, but have never talked and shared that much with each other. Always too many distractions. With Zoom we were focused on each other. It was great. We are doing it again tomorrow night.

From that I’ve now connected with my two main biz partners on Zoom and we are doing meetings online.

Just my experience, but I think the incredible growth is happening and the experience at least for me has been really great. A great tool.

TMB. Long ZM, but not enough shares yet. :wink:

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My wife’s family decided the other evening to speak online. Two of her sisters still live in South Korea, while her other two sisters love here in LA close to us.

So five couples downloaded Zoom onto their laptops and computers and went online with an invite from one of the sisters in South Korea. Yes, her idea to use Zoom.

Just another data point to add. I am currently living with my step-daughter and son-in-law in Costa Rica. The school where she teaches was just closed and her classes have migrated online. Out of curiosity I asked her what software she was using to connect with her students?

Google.

She said Google integrated with all her other software, Google Sheets, etc…, it was intuitive (“they do everything for you”) and it would even provide captioning in case anything was unclear or a student was not particularly good at English. And there is no cost.

Just FWIW.

Jeb

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Just a quick note that my company’s WebEx is down. Everyone’s working from home, so we’re all frustrated…

We switched to someone’s Zoom account, and that is working fine.

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“She said Google integrated with all her other software, Google Sheets, etc…,”

Jeb,
My wife is a public high school teacher here in Los Angeles. They are still deciding how to teach remotely in her district, but it seems that most will be going to Google classroom. I have no idea the differences, maybe it’s simply that it’s got “classroom” in the name that’s attracting attention.

TMB

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I just Zoomed for the first time. MF just launched a 24/7 round the clock Q&A on Zoom. Not sure from which of their premium services, maybe Stock Advisor, or Discovery.

Long on ZM in wife’s IRA.

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Hi Dreamer, if you think that the buzz about Zoom is all “echo chamber” you clearly didn’t bother to read the NY Times article that was linked to before you posted. (Or maybe you think that the Times article was echo chamber to this board too). It was a long article and I’ve just clipped out a few pieces below. The link has already been posted twice in this thread. It probably has more access to a wider pool of information than you, since you mentioned that you haven’t been on a video call in 15 years.
Saul

We Live in Zoom Now

Zoom is where we work, go to school and party these days….

no amount of planning could have anticipated the company’s emergence as a cultural phenomenon used to host parties, concerts, church services and art shows. Zoom could not have prepared to become a meme….

College students across the country are going on Zoom blind dates. Parents of sixth-graders at Rosenbaum Yeshiva Of North Jersey organized a Zoom “recess” for their children. Ethel’s Club, a wellness platform, is conducting Zoom tarot card readings, breath work and cannabis hangouts….

Virtual gatherings are proliferating. Harvard University, like many schools, has canceled all in-person graduate and undergraduate classes and will conduct them via Zoom.

A common joke among college students is that they all go to “Zoom University” now — the same school, just with very different price tags. Zoom University merchandise is already for sale on Amazon and RedBubble….

Many students say that adjusting to school closings and public health guidelines to isolate has been incredibly hard. They have used Zoom to attempt to replicate some sense of normalcy. Parties, sorority socials and beer pong nights have found a new home on Zoom….

‘Out of nowhere, Zoom has clout’

But why Zoom? Why not Skype, which has been around since 2003? Or Google Hangouts or Facebook Messenger or Apple’s FaceTime?..

Zoom is baked into many colleges and schools that already use it. The product’s layout makes it easy to talk with multiple people at once. And Zoom has some features that mirror social media apps. A button called Touch Up My Appearance casts a soft focus over the video display, smoothing out the skin tone of the presenter like an Instagram filter. Custom backdrops can hide messy bedrooms.

Zoom has a “hotter brand” association,said Rishi Jaluria, a senior research analyst at D.A. Davidson. “Younger people don’t want to use the older technology.”

People also pick Zoom because it works. Paul Condra, a technology analyst at PitchBook, said Zoom’s reliability and simplicity has made it the “standard” in videoconferencing software…

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I have had more than 20 zoom meetings in the last 48 hours as my company has moved to a zoom only remote workforce and there was a tremendous amount of coordination needed.

I have not noticed any change in performance. It is simply amazing that they have been able to scale so much, so quickly, without many hiccups (once I tried to call in and got a busy signal, just connected via internet instead). I think it speaks quite a bit to their architecture that they could do this. No traditional business could supply 10x demand without a hiccup. What an amazing business.

It is my largest position, although that is because everything else has fallen off a cliff.

Rob

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