Zoom app’s shares plummet as offices reopen

With offline work gaining pace, the demand for remote working technologies has significantly dropped as the Covid-19 pandemic subsides across the globe. The shares of popular video conferencing service provider Zoom Video Communications toppled by nearly 17% on August 31. The video conferencing platform saw a massive rise in user base as people across the world were forced to work and communicate remotely following the lockdown amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The company indicated that the drop in demand was faster than expected and now the analysts are raising questions about its future as people are returning to their offices, according to a report in Reuters.

Zoom along with other video conferencing service providers like Salesforce’s Slack, Microsoft’s Teams and Cisco’s Webex saw their user base go up by millions over the past year and a half owing to the Covid-19 pandemic. People were no longer able to venture out of their homes for work or academic purposes and had to carry out all of these activities remotely. People were forced to rely on these platforms to connect and communicate with colleagues and friends.

Remote work losing shine

With the pandemic curbs easing and vaccination being ramped up, people have begun to work from their offices. Educational institutions including schools have also reopened in several countries and students are returning to classrooms. With such developments taking place, Zoom will need to explore newer avenues to drive its growth. In July, the company invested $14.7 billion on Five9 to strengthen its contact center business, Reuters added. Analysts also told the news agency that Zoom will need a few quarters to make its way back to its accurate underlying growth rate.

Zoom witnessed the sharpest fall in its share price in over nine months on August 31, when it closed at $289.50. Since February last year, with the onset of the pandemic and remote activities gradually picking up, Zoom’s shares witnessed a meteoric rise and its valuation touched a whopping $175 billion in October. Post that, the share prices have come down and its current market capitalisation is nearly half of what it was in October last year.

Big tech growing bigger

As per a Wall Street Journal, the top global tech companies recorded substantial growth amid the pandemic. It further added that while certain companies like airlines and physical retail stores struggled to make ends meet, top tech companies raked in massive profits and saw their market capitalisation soar to newer heights. The combined revenue of Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet and Facebook stood at $1.1 trillion, with profits rising by close to 24% and combined market capitalization soaring to an astounding $8 trillion, the report added.