Posted on 05/17/2020 8:51:12 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, many people have transitioned to working—and socializing—from home. If these trends become the new normal, certain companies may be in for a big payoff.
Popular video conferencing company, Zoom Communications, is a prime example of an organization benefiting from this transition. Today’s graphic, inspired by Lennart Dobravsky at Lufthansa Innovation Hub, is a dramatic look at how much Zoom’s valuation has shot up during this unusual period in history.
As of May 15, 2020, Zoom’s market capitalization has skyrocketed to $48.8 billion, despite posting revenues of only $623 million over the past year.
What separates Zoom from its competition, and what’s led to the app’s massive surge in mainstream business culture?
Industry analysts say that business users have been drawn to the app because of its easy-to-use interface and user experience, as well as the ability to support up to 100 participants at a time. The app has also blown up among educators for use in online learning, after CEO Eric Yuan took extra steps to ensure K-12 schools could use the platform for free.
Zoom meeting participants have skyrocketed in past months, going from 10 million in December 2019 to a whopping 300 million as of April 2020.
The airline industry has been on the opposite end of fortune, suffering an unprecedented plummet in demand as international restrictions have shuttered airports:
The world’s top airlines by revenue have fallen in total value by 62% since the end of January:
| Airline | Market Cap Jan 31, 2020 | Market Cap May 15, 2020 |
|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | $28.440B | $14.04B |
| Delta | $35.680B | $12.30B |
| United | $18.790B | $5.867B |
| International Airlines Group | $14.760B | $4.111B |
| Lufthansa | $7.460B | $3.873B |
| American | $11.490B | $3.886B |
| Air France | $4.681B | $2.137B |
| Total Market Cap | $121.301B | $46.214B |
Source: YCharts. All market capitalizations listed as of May 15, 2020.
With countries scrambling to contain the spread of COVID-19, many airlines have cut travel capacity, laid off workers, and chopped executive pay to try and stay afloat.
If and when regular air travel will return remains a major question mark, and even patient investors such as Warren Buffett have pulled out from airline stocks.
| Airline | % Change in Total Returns (Jan 31-May 15, 2020) |
|---|---|
| United | -72.91% |
| International Airlines Group | -72.16% |
| American | -65.76% |
| Delta | -65.39% |
| Air France | -54.34% |
| Southwest Airlines | -56.35% |
| Lufthansa | -48.08% |
Source: YCharts, as of May 15, 2020.
The world has changed for the airlines. The future is much less clear to me about how the business will turn out.
—Warren Buffett
Zoom’s recent success is a product of its circumstances, but will it last? That’s a question on the mind of many investors and pundits ahead of the company’s Q1 results to be released in June.
It hasn’t been all smooth-sailing for the company—a spate of “Zoom Bombing” incidents, where uninvited people hijacked meetings, brought the app’s security measures under scrutiny. However, the company remained resilient, swiftly providing support to combat the problem.
Meanwhile, as many parts of the world begin taking measures to restart economic activity, airlines could see a cautious return to the skies—although any such recovery will surely be a “slow, long ascent”.
Correction: Changed the graphics to reflect 300 million daily active “meeting participants” as opposed to daily active users.
Just kidding! Just a li'l joke there. Please, we don't need a hundred posts proving me wrong. I was jes' havin' a little fun here.
Well heck yeah. An opportunity to rat out your neighbors if you see something “offensive” during a ‘zoom’ video conference.
This problem has been fixed. Now, only the Chinese Communist Party can listen in and record meetings. See, it's all better now.
I am entirely dissatisfied with Zoom’s lack of security and its routing traffic through China (one link of many: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-8216867/Zoom-let-users-opt-data-routing-China.html) and refuse to use it in my home network.
RE: I am entirely dissatisfied with Zoom’s lack of security and its routing traffic through China (
There are alternatives. But I don’t know if you want Bill Gates to be even richer by using Microsoft Teams.
How can they make money? Sounds like a good short
If a product is "free," then YOU are the product, i.e., tracking data, usage data, etc...all within the context of the (non) Privacy Statement.
What ever happened to NetMeeting?
What ever happened to NetMeeting?”
Right, there are probably a dozen work alike applications that are not hooked into the ChiComs. You could probably even scale up face time.
Please give me the name and location of this lemonade stand, so that I may report them to the neighborhood Gestapo family center.
Thank you, citizen of the world.
Why would M$ extinguish a killer app?
1060 West Addison St.
RE: What ever happened to NetMeeting?
Microsoft NetMeeting is a discontinued VoIP and multi-point videoconferencing client included in many versions of Microsoft Windows (from Windows 95 OSR2 to Windows XP).
Today, Microsoft promotes the use of their Teleconferencing products that compete with Zoom: TEAMS and SKYPE.
Couldn’t similar apps such as Skype make a few modifications, so that they too could host several people at once?
That seems to be the main difference between Tik Tok and older models. The common format reminds me of The Brady Bunch or Hollywood Squares.
Thank you, citizen.
Please stop by our offices for your extra portion of rice.
RE: Couldn’t similar apps such as Skype make a few modifications, so that they too could host several people at once?
Skype For Business CAN host several people at once.
Microsoft’s TEAMS is also used for this purpose.
Well, being larger than an airline today isn’t hard since they have experience a 96% reduction in revenue.
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