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Zoom sells video-calling and workplace software that lets people meet, call, and collaborate online.
Zoom is a software company that makes money by helping people talk to each other without being in the same room. Its core product is video meetings — the kind of call where a grid of faces appears on your screen and someone inevitably forgets to unmute. That product became a household name during the pandemic, when offices, schools, and families suddenly needed a way to gather online, and Zoom's meeting app was simpler and more reliable than most of what came before it.
The business has widened beyond just meetings. Zoom now sells a bundle of workplace tools: phone calling that runs over the internet instead of traditional phone lines, chat and team messaging, and a customer-service product for companies that talk to their own customers. It also sells the hardware and software for conference rooms, and in 2024 it rebranded from "Zoom Video Communications" to "Zoom Communications" to signal that it wants to be seen as a full collaboration suite, not just a video app. The customers are a mix: regular people using a free or cheap plan, small businesses, and large enterprises that pay per employee seat. The big enterprises are where the serious money is, and Zoom has been pushing to win more of them by bundling phone, chat, and meetings into one package. Why do customers pick Zoom instead of Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, or Cisco's Webex? Mostly because it is easy to use and it works. Microsoft and Google can shove their tools into their existing office software bundles, which is a real advantage — Teams comes free with many Microsoft subscriptions, and that is Zoom's biggest headache. Zoom's counter is that its product is more polished and its video quality and reliability are strong, but the bundling pressure from Microsoft is genuine and has slowed growth as the pandemic surge faded. Revenue growth went from explosive to modest, and the company has been working to prove it can grow again through phone and enterprise deals rather than just meetings.
The most interesting financial story is what Zoom did with the cash it piled up. Growth slowed, and instead of hoarding the money, the company turned to buying back its own shares — a lot of them. Management has leaned on repurchases as a way to return value while it waits for new products to mature. Zoom has also invested in AI features, like meeting summaries and assistants that sit inside the call and take notes for you, which is now a battleground across all workplace software. The company remains profitable and holds a large cash pile, but the central question hanging over it is simple: can a company built on the pandemic's most famous app stay essential once the world went back to the office?
Saved answer · last researched 21 Oct 2026