ZM IPO

Back at it again with the IPO's. If you are in the trading rooms you are definitely familiar with this next one. And if you are active on the internet at all you have probably heard of them to. That said company is Zoom. Let's talk about it!

Founded in 2011 by a lead engineer as Cisco systems, Zoom officially started it's service in mid 2013 and served over 1 million participants. Soon after that, they started to partner with other software and hardware services in their "Works with Zoom" campaign. By 2014 participants of the product had grown to over 10 million and 2015, they were hitting around 40 million! Zoom's services include Zoom Meetings, Zoom Premium Audio, Zoom Business IM, Zoom Video Webinar, Zoom Rooms, Zoom H.323/SIP Connector, and Zoom Developer Platform. They are currently based in San Jose, California and have about 1300 employees.

Zoom generates money by it's various subscription model plans. Like most subscriptions, they are tiered in price and complexity depending on the needs it addresses. They do have a free tier however it is very limited in scope and is probably best fit ultra small businesses or the average Joe. Paid plans range from $14.99 a month per host, and top at around "$1900.99 a month. It all just depends on what you need exactly. As you likely know, Real Life Trading has been using ZOOM for over 3 years now. 

 And speaking of RLT, you know how much Newsome loves those subscription models with reoccurring revenue.  It also seems that Zoom is actually profitable! Most tech companies this young are still quite in debt at this point focusing on sheer growth. At the end of the most recent fiscal year (Jan 31) Zoom had $330.5 million in revenue, and after all was said and done had a net income of $7.6 million dollars! Not too far off from break even, but hey it's profit! And revenue was 118% higher year over year.

When it comes to cloud based webinar services, Zoom is certainly not standing alone. Competitors like Cisco, Google Hangout, GotoMeetings, and Skype for Business are definitely fighting for space in the arena. Most of this comes down to what you are looking for. Speaking as a company that has used most of these competitors, Zoom just performs better than the others. I mean the CEO did set out from Cisco to create the best platform ever. Google Hangouts was originally meant for individuals, although that may change. GotoMeetings is laggy and slow unless you have stellar internet. Skype has a lot of standard features that you must pay for that other platforms include for a set easy fee. It just depends.

Here is an exclusive video on some quick analysis. 

Thanks for spending some time out of your day to read about Zoom! I have pumped out 4 IPO's in the last week and a half and I am not ready to stop yet! If you have any suggestions make sure to send them to me at ashley@reallifetrading.com.

Stay epic!

- Ashley