If there was one brand that really stood out in 2020, it was Zoom. The company’s fortunes skyrocketed, thanks to the sudden and unprecedented rise in the user base of Zoom’s eponymous video-conferencing service for enterprise, academic, and personal use. Spurred by the growth, the company is now looking to expand the horizons of its business beyond just video calling and has zeroed in on two areas – an email client and a calendar service. 

Zoom has a Google-sized challenge in front of it

As per a report from The Information, the company has already started working on its email service, and it might enter a closed testing phase among a handful of users early next year. “The company has begun developing a web email service and might offer a very early version of the product to some customers next year, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. The company also is looking into building a calendar application, one of the people said. The efforts haven’t been reported previously,” says the report.

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Zoom’s calendar service, on the other hand, might be a bit far off at the moment. However, the work on both services is still in its early stages, so it won’t be surprising to see Zoom pulling the plugs on its email and calendar service ambitions down the road. And even if Zoom’s plans do take off, the biggest challenge will be snatching some market share away from the two biggest players in the domain – Google and Microsoft. 

Microsoft's Outlook, Office 365 and Teams trifecta is another Goliath to tackle

Google’s Meet is fairly popular right now, and seamless integration across its key services such as Gmail and Calendar makes it a great option for enterprise as well as personal use. Microsoft also has a fairly robust offering in the form of Outlook, and it works well in conjunction with its Office 365 and Teams service. Taking on these well-received services from the two titans is not going to be easy for Zoom, but it will be interesting to see if Zoom’s email and calendar products can offer something truly unique and more productive that can help it stand out from its rivals.