Video conferencing market was not done!? Zoom(ZM) taught everyone a lesson.
Zoom went IPO on April 18, 2019. I think it’s a surprise to a lot of people esp. high tech folks in silicon valley. I was one of the highly surprised. Not because of its founder Eric Yuan’s very unique career path, but the battle field itself — Video conferencing.
Yes, to me as a veteran high techer, I am expecting new eye-catching IPO from the “hot” arenas incl. Autonomous Driving, Artificial Intelligence, sharing economy, Deep Learning, Space Exploration, FinTech. But NOT video conferencing, the reason is very simple to me — that field is already DONE, since all the major positions are already taken by very strong players — just no room left for any new comers, let’s have a look how crowded the room was with big and solid players before Zoom squeezed in.
For individual users:
- Skype (acquired by Microsoft in 2011), the first major app that delivered VoIP to the hands of millions of users all over the world.
- Google Hangout: naturally built in Gmail.
For office users:
- WebEx (owned by Cisco)
- Google Meet: part of Google’s collaboration suite (Google for work)
And more!
While all happened is now as you know as the history, Eric Yuan left Cisco as the VP of engineering and founded Zoom in 2011, 9 years later, he took Zoom public on Nasdaq and made himself a multi-billionaire over the night, another beautiful American Dream story!
My point here is —There is really NO “done” area/industry, there is always room for new comer in most of business, industries and countries! As Larry Page(Google’s co-founder) said, “On the Internet, competition is one click away.” It is absolutely true! And Zoom’s success proved it so clearly!
Why? Zoom is clearly the latest comer to the almost done game, without a jaw-dropping killer new technology, with below “weapons”, they shook the industry up!
a) Focus: While they have one key advantage — laser-focused concentration on just one thing, not like Skype or WebEx is just a tiny part of their parent companies, video conferencing is 100% and the only thing Zoom is doing.
b) Right leader: Eric Yuan — was one the WebEx’s initial key engineers, got his US visa after 8 times rejected.
c) Right product strategy: SMB first, Enterprise later, make it so easy to use, and highly reliable.
Last, for any competition, we all know first-mover has its advantage to be the first. While with Zoom as a great example, with better focus, strategy and execution, it’s never too late to join the party!
