New Zoom Platform To Launch ‘Virtual Experiences’

Zoom, the poster child of pandemic success, is set to roll out Zoom Events, with the goal of having its platform provide “customers with the tools to create a wide range of engaging virtual experiences.”

The company said that the genesis of the new product was OnZoom, a test service that launched last October. The test product provided paid Zoom users with the ability to create, host and make money from such offerings as fitness classes, music or art lessons, and theater presentations.

A Zoom blog post said: “Think of Zoom Events as the next evolution of OnZoom into a more powerful platform that can meet the needs” of small to medium-size businesses (SMBs) as well as large corporations.

The new service will mimic the in-person conference experience. The company said event hosts can use the product to:

• Create multisession events such as conferences, where attendees can network with one another in a virtual lobby.
• Offer ticketing and registration for attendees.
• Manage and host internal events such as sales meetings.
• Set up external events like user conferences.
• Group together internal events and make them easily discoverable for employees.

Businesses also can create a “hub” that allows employees to find internal events relevant to their needs.

As the pandemic winds down, companies that prospered in the work-from-home environment — such as videoconferencing’s Zoom — will face new challenges. Companies such as Amazon and Zoom saw their stocks soar by roughly 149 percent and about 50 percent in the past year as of last month (April 28). Another digital-focused firm, DocuSign, saw its stock rise by about 121 percent in the past year.

But the work-from-home economy may be morphing into something else as various sectors of the economy are opening up, and as people may start commuting again. Investors may not be as keen for pandemic faves when growth rates slow in the new work environment.