By
Godfrey Benjamin
April 18th, 2024
Microsoft sees Zoom as a massive threat. Zoom is functional. But its security and privacy remain rather questionable. Microsoft can use such a situation in its own interests. Meanwhile, yesterday MSFT stock gained 1%.
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) started growing on Thursday pre-market growing easily by 0.10% to $165.30 mostly guided by other companies’ mistakes. Moreover, yesterday MSFT stock gained 1%. But let’s explain a bit. They say a sign of a good company is its ability to take advantage of mistakes committed by others. Well, guess what? Microsoft can rise without even lifting a finger thanks to – Zoom Video Communications (NASDAQ: ZM). Video conferencing app Zoom has exploded in popularity over the past month as people have been looking for ways to stay in touch virtually while social distancing even it exists since 2011.
However, the company’s privacy and security are rather controversial and hackers went on rattling business meetings with numerous threats, homophobic and racist messages or by showing pornographic images.
U.S. Senate Tells Members to Avoid Using Zoom
That is some of the reasons why, for example, the United States Senate urged its members not to use the Zoom Video Communications app due to security concerns. Also, the German foreign ministry has notably restricted the use of Zoom concerning a potential breach of securities and privacy issues.
Zoom tried to throw it all away naming hackers the “party crashers,” but others are taking it more seriously. The FBI has been also involved.
Zoom stated:
“We’re always striving to continue to deliver you a secure virtual meeting environment. Based on feedback from our community, we’ve chosen to enable passwords on your meetings and turn on Waiting Rooms by default starting April 5, as additional security enhancements to protect your privacy.”
And there is where the Microsoft jumps in.
Skype Is Short Term Solution in Competition with Zoom, Microsoft Teams New Features Coming In
Microsoft is a longtime leader in online meetings especially after it bought Skype, back in 2011 for $8.5 billion. According to the latest information, it now has approximately 100 million monthly average users, and 40 million people who use Skype on a daily basis.
The company Microsoft Corporation Corporate Vice President Yusuf Mehdi said last month that the number of daily Skype users jumped by 70% on a monthly basis to 40 million and that a “220% percent increase” has been registered “in Skype to Skype calling minutes month over month.”
The tech giant also pointed out that the new Microsoft Family Safety app and new features in its Microsoft Teams are going to be released “in the coming months.” On a newly created page on Skype’s website, Microsoft is promoting Skype’s features, which are similar to Zoom’s with better security.
As of Microsoft teams, Microsoft is making plans to replace the Skype platform with Microsoft Teams, and last month the application saw a surge of 37% in the number of daily users jumping to 44 million compared to the previous week’s 32 million, amid rising remote work due to the coronavirus outbreak that kept people doing their business from home.
Security Became a Priority
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella then said that the demand for the use of their remote collaboration app increased sharply in the past few weeks, especially after the Washington-base tech giant Redmond ordered their employees to work remotely.
Jared Spataro, corporate vice president for Microsoft 365, addressed the security question in a blog post:
“Now more than ever, people need to know that their virtual conversations are private and secure. At Microsoft, privacy and security are never an afterthought. It’s our commitment to you – not only during this challenging time, but always.”
Microsoft has also just launched a Zoom competitor for consumers, Meet Now, allowing people to use Skype and generate a meeting link without an account.
At the time of writing Microsoft (MSFT) stock fell in pre-market by 0.055% to $165.04 while Zoom (ZM) shares fell 1.20% to $116.40.