Zoom renames chat product, adds features in push to compete with Teams, Slack

(Reuters) – Zoom Video Communications Inc said on Monday it has renamed its chat product and added some features, including third party integration, as it looks to compete with rivals including Microsoft’s Teams and Slack.

Zoom’s app, now known as Zoom Team Chat, will also include features such as the ability to share in-meeting chat to Team Chat, schedule a meeting from chat or channel. The featured will be released by the end of the month.

Zoom was a little-known company when the pandemic hit in early 2020, but posted triple-digit revenue growth at the peak of the crisis as people stuck at home took to video-conferencing to communicate.

The company, which competes with WeChat Work, Microsoft Teams, Cisco WebEx and Slack, faces an uphill task of onboarding high-paying clients to sustain its growth at a time when several firms are shifting to hybrid work.

Last month, Zoom cut its annual profit and revenue forecasts as demand cools off from pandemic highs.

Shares of the pandemic darling was up 1% to $83.43. The stocks is down 55% in the year up to Friday close.

(Reporting by Tiyashi Datta in Bengaluru; editing by Ankur Banerjee)