When your product goes from being "a videoconferencing tool used in some workplaces" to "the primary way people communicate and gather for personal or professional reasons", it makes sense that there will be a lot of stories about it (good, bad and neutral) in the press.

>"the primary way people communicate and gather for personal or professional reasons",

I would be curious to see an article about why this happened? Is Zoom better than their countless competitors? They all seem pretty similar in my experience so why is it Zoom that is blowing up because of this and not any of the other companies?

Part of it is that, (at least in my experience, maybe this has changed) Zoom can scale to a couple hundred people in a way that tools like Google Hangouts can't.

But like, if we're being honest, it probably has a lot to do with how easy it is to start a Zoom call and invite people. You can host a 40 minute meeting for free. No one needs to sign up anywhere. It's super easy to install but also works in the browser if you can't install it. Computer on the fritz? You can call in from your phone. And yeah, they've also used some dirty tricks to make it as easy as possible, and some of those measures (like the auto-reinstall thing) were probably unnecessary. But they've clearly focused on being super super easy to start using, and when their moment came they were primed to seize it.

Last weekend my family had a "month's mind mass" in memory of my grandfather who passed a month ago. We were able to get dozens of people, many of them very non-technical, into the call, and we started basically on time. There was no "it doesn't work on my old phone" or "you mean I have to sign up for gmail?" or "whoops I couldn't get in because I signed in with my work email". That's why Zoom is winning the game right now.

It doesn't work for shit in the browser; it's deliberately crippled (compare browser-based Zoom to Google Meet or Whereby).

And even then the browser interface is hidden behind multiple attempts to make you install and use their client instead.

Zoom tells me browser isn't modern enough and that I should use Chrome. Even in Chrome that still push to install their app. Thanks, next

Skype meeting is just 1 url and no software or sign up, so that's even easier.

so, exactly the same as default zoom? not actually easier

You don't need an article to estimate the direction from which The sun will rise tomorrow.

Zoom is better than the alternatives on most verticals and has good PR. In fact, justified privacy concerns aside, it's hands down the best vid. conference app I've ever used.

I carefully evaluated all of the major players here (at least 2 hours in each one) and Zoom definitely has the 2nd best video/audio quality/latency after FaceTime (and you can't use FaceTime for meetings where even one person doesn't have an Apple device).

Probably because it was so easy to use. In my professional capacity I have used probably a dozen different conference software, and Zoom is by far at/near the top in terms of stability, usability and client install experience.

I've used a fair amount of WebEx (hosting and attending "meetings"). I don't particularly like WebEx, but Zoom feels like a cheap knockoff in comparison. I think Zoom is doing a better job marketing to individuals than the older players in the market.

WebEx is challenging - I work with industry partners who use WebEx and it just seems clunky.

I do think WebEx does some things better than Zoom (I like to share 2-3 apps - for Zoom it's 1 at a time or entire desktop) but Zoom has led to better client adoption for us.

it just works and works so well. especially for our use cases as virtual college classrooms.

> why is it Zoom that is blowing up because of this and not any of the other companies?

I suspect it seems that way because Zoom was already more aggressively seeking media spotlight as a growth startup, and experiencing more rapid growth in terms of multiples because it had a much smaller install base to start with than established competitors. Also, Zoom is the center of it's company’s business whereas Slack and Webex are just part of a large stable for their respective firms.