COVID-19 is intensifying competition between collaboration specialists and tech giants

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused worldwide lockdowns, forcing millions of people to work remotely. Smaller companies providing collaborative tools are increasingly finding themselves battling the giants of the tech industry for prime position in a highly lucrative market, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Ella Benson Easton, Thematic Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “The increased demand for video conferencing has resulted in a twentyfold increase in daily users of video conferencing company Zoom since December 2019. This sudden growth in user base and the increased market of potential users has intensified the competition between such specialist providers and the global tech giants.

“Zoom, along with Slack, gained leading positions in GlobalData’s Thematic Scorecard for application software, which has been updated to consider the effects of COVID-19. These companies have strengths in themes that will determine future success, making them a threat to established tech giants.

“While both Zoom and Microsoft are determined to be leaders, Zoom takes second place in the ranking while Microsoft lags at tenth.”

Microsoft is looking to make its Office 365 services, including Teams and Skype for Business, the industry standards for enterprise collaboration tools.

Benson Easton adds: “Specialised companies that may seek to benefit from the pandemic and changing work patterns will not be able to conquer new markets without facing competition from tech giants.

“These more established companies have greater experience with large user bases and the associated scrutiny, while smaller specialised companies now have a steep learning curve if they want to consolidate their growth.”

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