Zoom Now Worth More Than the World’s 7 Biggest Airlines

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/zoom-boom-biggest-airlines/

by samspenc • 6 years ago

45 44 6 years ago

yyy888sss• 6 years ago

Overvalued IMO. I don't find Zoom to be at all differentiated from the many other video call apps from Meet, Teams, Skype, etc. All the enterprise software companies include video meetings in their bundles, why would you pay extra for Zoom?

nikanj• 6 years ago

Because Zoom _works_. I know of multiple companies that pay for Teams due to Big Corp Politics, but still use Zoom because it actually works.

nelaboras• 6 years ago

jitsi also just works.

you might like the servicr, but zoom is definitely overvalued, no question about it.

0xy3• 6 years ago

Google Meet works, and works faster. One URL, click join, bam you're in. Zoom you have to install (and accept that the CCP will steal your IP).

swiley• 6 years ago

Honestly I’ve used a dozen different conference call apps in the past few months and they all _work_. I still don’t get why zoom is popular, on Linux they want me to install a browser extension just to join a call which is unacceptable when we have webrtc already.

IMO it’s one of those situations where some software becomes popular for reasons (marketing? Network effects?) and people just use it because it’s there. No one can shop for software and that’s why we need open protocols.

aphextron• 6 years ago

"All the enterprise software companies include video meetings in their bundles, why would you pay extra for Zoom?"

Network effect.

Zoom adoption has reached critical mass. Why does anyone pay for Slack when IRC is free? It's what everyone else is doing.

Exmoor2• 6 years ago

The network effect cuts both ways here. Why pay extra for Zoom when you are already invested in Office 365? The ability to invite external participants to join a call via web browser limits the friction getting people to join calls on unfamiliar systems.

threatofrain2• 6 years ago

Everyone is still catching up to Zoom's features; many companies still don't have background replacement, or can't take as many simultaneous users.

mindfulplay• 6 years ago

This is really fascinating. Continuing along the comparison with airplane stocks:

On one hand you have companies that keep flying chairs in the sky filled with people, feeding them every few hours migrating them across continents.

On the other hand, I have a company that can replace my crappy apt bedroom with a fake office background.

Fascinating that VC funded madness has gotten to this point - prioritizing CTRs, engagement, growth rates and so on.

ta177117713• 6 years ago

Except Jitsi, you mean?

mwkurian• 6 years ago

Zoom P/E ratio is 2k+. Seems overvalued?

perl4ever2• 6 years ago

Compared to what? Plenty of companies are losing money and are highly valued, which is kind of like having a P/E that is greater than ∞.

lugged• 6 years ago

Reality?

mewpmewp22• 6 years ago

It's actually p/e in the negatives. Anyway people should stop using it as some kind of god metric. It is easy to justify cases where large or negative p/e makes sense.

rvz• 6 years ago

The question is how long can Zoom keep this up and when will it start to go downhill, even when the airline industry starts to recover (if they can recover).

In both cases, What goes up, must come down.

Exmoor2• 6 years ago

Hats off to Zoom. Someday I hope we get a post-mortem from someone with a hand in the technologies they're using to scale. 3 months ago I think 90+% of the population had never heard of them and now it's a household name.

Three months ago I would've probably bet every dollar I had against a company in their position being able to fairly-reliably scale exponentially to meet an unforeseen circumstance.

I'm curious to see if they can ride this into long term success.

pcurve• 6 years ago

Shopify has market cap of $82 billion.

Is it sustainable?

wtfno009887466• 6 years ago

Seems overvalued imo

0xy3• 6 years ago

If you use this as a company, you should assume that the CCP will have direct access to your confidential discussions and IP given their atrocious security record and extensive ties to China.

If ANY company has extensive ties to China, they are under full influence of the CCP. You literally cannot operate in China without this influence at any sort of scale.

Zoom is developed almost entirely in China. The CCP has policies that systematically steal intellectual property for use in Chinese companies. If they can intercept your IP, they'll steal it and give it to Chinese competitors.

myopenid3• 6 years ago

ta177117713• 6 years ago

Your history leads the reader to believe you're being sarcastic.

Yet, many entrepreneurs here have echoed the same sentiment over the years

Consider that it's not a campaign.

throwaway55434• 6 years ago

In addition, Zoom is an American company, so they must comply with National Security Letters as well.

m463• 6 years ago

A friend of mine said they were using the "government version of zoom" or somesuch. (in the united states, some sort of secured zoom)

bawolff• 6 years ago

Yet again proving that nobody cares if your product is a security disaster.

seesawtron• 6 years ago

Can someone be so kind to explain how is the market worth of a company calculated? Is it based on (1) the number of users (2) how much capital gets invested in it with purchase of shares? ..?

I just find it hard to grasp the idea that an app can "be worth" more than 7 largest airlines combined; because I do not clearly understand how the worth is being calculated.

thoughtstheseus• 6 years ago

Worth, as from the article is market capitalization. Market Capitalization is shares outstanding times price per share. Price per share is the price at which shares of that company trade at.

You could also look at enterprise value which is market cap + net debt for a better view of size.

In the investment markets people frequently joke about how poor airlines are for an investment. Many of them don’t even own their own planes because they do not make enough money to use the depreciation.

naveen992• 6 years ago

Interesting all the cons have much less karma than the pros on this topic as of now.

naveen992• 6 years ago

Do the airlines have an api ? zoom does : https://marketplace.zoom.us/docs/api-reference/zoom-api

How many yc startups will be enabled with it ?

Zoom Now Worth More Than the World’s 7 Biggest Airlines

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