Zoom SWOT Analysis 2024: In-Depth Analysis Report

With a market cap of $19.41 billion in 2022, Zoom ranks as the world’s 849th company. It saw a meteoric rise in users during the pandemic, but has not focused on sustaining its growth. Zoom is an example of how spontaneous massive growth can spell trouble for companies, and we’ll examine it with the Zoom SWOT analysis.

Zoom: Company Overview

Zoom was founded by Eric Yuan in 2013, with 40 engineers running the service. Before launching, Zoom struggled to find any investors, but WebEx found Subrah Iyar provided it with $3 million in seed money in 2011. In 2017, Zoom was dubbed a unicorn or a private company worth $1 billion, and in 2019 the company was valued at $16 billion after it went public.
Zoom is currently a communications technology company, projecting a $4.39 billion TTM revenue in 2023. It’s headquartered in San Jose, California, and currently employs 8,484 staff.

Product & Services of Zoom
Videotelephony & Online Chat Services

Zoom Competitors
Skype | Cisco Webex | Google Meet | Microsoft Teams | Discord | GoToMeeting | TeamViewer | BlueJeans

Did You Know?

In the 1990s, Yuan had to travel 10 hours by train to visit his girlfriend. So, the idea of seeing her without the hassle became the inspiration for Zoom.

Strengths – Zoom SWOT Analysis

Superior UX Philosophy: Compared to its competitors, Zoom’s UX is very intuitive and friendly. Joining a Zoom meeting is a mere 3-step process that doesn’t require any sign-ups or any native apps. The meeting screen isn’t cluttered with complicated features, only opting to show important features such as end calls, participants, polls, share screen, and reactions while minimizing other options. The native desktop and phone applications are simple and have easily noticeable options due to color choices and size.

A Trove Of Features: Zoom dominates the video call market thanks to its collection of over 42 useful features that work flawlessly across all platforms. It provides E2EE encryption, waiting rooms, scheduling, custom ID, reminders, and recording capability for every Zoom call. It also allows the users to touch up their appearance, hide their background, remotely control another user’s device, IM, share files, and more. Paid users can create announcements, have calls saved on the cloud, enable SIP-connected audio for internal organizational calls, and choose which servers their calls are being connected through.

Capability: Zoom’s capability in terms of call quality, consistency, and user management are unmatched by any other service, and it makes a world of difference in a professional setting. On average, Zoom has a calling latency of 17-24 ms, 24 or higher FPS, only 2 ms of jitter, and no packet loss. This is the best performance of all platforms, and even free users can enjoy such quality with their 40-minute group calls. Zoom allows up to 100 users per meeting for free and 500 for paid users, while Google Meet and Microsoft Teams can only offer up to 250.

Targeting A Demographic: Every day, over 300 million users worldwide participate in Zoom meetings, and 1.7 million users in the US and the UK have the Zoom app on their phones. However, Zoom doesn’t target anyone and everyone who uses its services. Instead, it aims to generate the majority of its revenue from businesses and other organizations that prefer intuitive, but versatile UI with a bevy of curated services. In 2022, the platform had 504,900 business customers, and 156 of its customers generated $1 million each per year.

Powerful Brand Image: Zoom has replaced the term “video calling” in colloquial usage due to its massive rise in popularity and usage during the pandemic. During the pandemic, over 90,000 schools used its platform to teach, and its business users grew from 82,400 to 470,100. During the pandemic, its meeting participants rose by 2900%, and its value rose by 383%. Even after the pandemic has receded, Zoom has maintained its reputation with most of its user base thanks to its impeccable service.

Weaknesses – Zoom SWOT Analysis

Weak Data Security: Zoom holds many companies’ and users’ confidential data, which can cripple their operations and life if exposed. Unfortunately, Zoom data security is not up to par, as there have been quite a few security breaches in the last few years. In 2020, meetings were invaded by trolls and hackers, the platform leaked data to Facebook, Mac webcams and microphones could be hacked, and China could snoop in on calls. Even in 2023, the Zoombombing continues, and malware is being delivered to many desktop users instead of its application installer.

Not Caring About User Privacy: Zoom’s concern about user Privacy and security has been proven to be a reluctant effort at the best of times. In 2020, Zoom announced that it was not providing its free users with E2EE encryption, claiming that it would stop illicit activities conducted through its site. While this may allow the authorities to catch criminals, this decision mostly left its free users vulnerable to hackers and internet trolls. The deserved backlash forced the company to provide E2EE encryption to free users too, but served as a warning to users not to trust Zoom in the future.

Problematic Business Model: Zoom operates on a subscription-based model, yet its main source of revenue is its B2B contracts. It provides its free users with most of the facilities they need, along with ample meeting time to fulfill their needs. For many professionals, the free version of Zoom is more than adequate, and Zoom can’t get these users to subscribe to its service. Its freemium model offers too much for no cost and misses out on collecting revenue from users who can pay.

Inability To Stop Employer Policing: Since the pandemic, Zoom has become a method of snooping on employees for bosses and superiors. Since the pandemic, employers have become more demanding of employees, taking over their free time and forcing them to increase their productivity. Zooming was a way for employers to investigate the private life of their employees, which led to cases of discrimination and privacy invasions. Although Zoom is not intentionally allowing these behaviors, it is the medium and therefore considered a culprit of corporate abuse.

Opportunities – Zoom SWOT Analysis

Improving Cloud Security: Zoom mostly focuses on encrypting its cloud data and currently uses its user’s personal data as a watermark on their recorded calls, which is insufficient and dangerous, to say the least. The platform can instead choose better IAM protocols, such as IdP with a unique code per user, MFA with email, phone number, USB, and device, and access controls for specific employees for their B2B clients. To ensure full cloud security, Zoom can educate and train its users about malware, updating devices and security, and password hygiene.

Expanding Into Video-based Social Media: Zoom can create a social media platform based on video chatting, such as Omegle. The company can randomize its user’s video chatting partners just like Omegle but also provide a subscription-based service that can later help them track down past users they’ve talked with and reconnect.

Adding Live Translated Scripts: Zoom acquired German AI startup Kites in 2021 to enhance its live translating capabilities. It would be simple for the company to include a premium service that transcribes the translated video calls for its users. The platform can then offer further translation services after the call has been transcribed.

Threats – Zoom SWOT Analysis

Ruined Image: Zoom has already gotten plenty of negative press about allowing employers to track attendees’ attention and see their private messages. It has been additionally accused of letting China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia spy on its US users and sell data to Meta. By mismanaging its users’ security, it has gradually created a negative impression on its users. Continued mismanagement will brand Zoom as a service to avoid its users.

Rising Competition: Aside from already existing powerful competitors such as Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Slack, Discord, and Skype, there have been newer competitors such as Agora entering the market with even more powerful products. Agora can integrate its video calling services directly into proprietary applications and provide top-notch security, which Zoom has been struggling with. These competitors can absorb Zoom’s market share and ruin its business.

Restrictive Laws: Zoom has already been in hot waters with the US government for breaking privacy laws in 2021, which cost it $86 million. With the EU and many Asian countries cracking down on digital security lapses and data collection practices, Zoom could easily fall into its firing line and lose most of its revenue from restrictions and fines.

[Bonus Infographic] SWOT Analysis of Zoom

Recommendations for Zoom

Zoom can consider these improvisations to its services:

• Zoom can offer to integrate its services with company software.
• It can split its B2B and B2C services and offer unique benefits for each version.
• The platform can test and inform its users about signal strength before meetings.
• It can improve its IAM security protocols.
• The company can contract Nvidia to include its Broadcast services for audio clarity and video masking.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Final Words on Zoom SWOT Analysis

Zoom is another company with a sinking reputation due to data breaches and data stealing practices. To survive, it must improve security and focus on its paying customers. It cannot grow by relying on free users and ignoring data management.

References

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