The pandemic has served almost two years of economic strife, with many companies and businesses hit hard by the new reality of social distancing and staying home. Yet there are several industries that have surprisingly profited from the new shift. None more so than video-calling platform Zoom.
While the company was making a steady incline since its founding in 2011, COVID-19 brought a massive amount of users to Zoom. From an inconvenience within worklife, video conferencing tools suddenly became a necessary lifeline for businesses to work day-to-day. In the early days of the pandemic, the app increased from an average of about 50,000 downloads to over 2 million downloads a day.
The word “Zoom” quickly joined our pandemic vocabulary along the likes of “social distancing” and “work from home”. Simultaneously, another unrelated company, ZoomInfo, had the technology sector’s biggest IPO in 2020, raising nearly $1 billion. It didn’t take long before users and investors started taking note of the Zoom boom, and technology PR companies representing zoom-named clients leveraged the “zoom” popularity.
The Rise of Zoom Companies
Even before the pandemic, Zoom Video had already proven itself as a massive success. The video conferencing platform beat out competitors due to its low data usage, allowing the platform to function in areas with low internet connection, and its cloud-based nature, enabling users to skip time-consuming installations. A year before the pandemic, Zoom Video had an enormous IPO, placing the company in the perfect position to skyrocket once COVID-19 became a central part of our lives.
ZoomInfo is an SaaS company that improves companies’ sales, marketing, and recruitment. While unrelated to Zoom Video, ZoomInfo provides its services to Zoom Video, improving the company’s sales. The success of both of these companies, while unrelated, has brought about a notable increase in Zoom-named startups. This has led to investor confusion—last year, the SEC even suspended trading in shares of Zoom Telephonics after investors confused it with Zoom Video.
Technology PR Companies Jump on The Zoom Bandwagon
But the Zoom boom has actually served real success to zoom-named companies. Other zoom-y companies, such as unrelated Zoomi, Zoomd, Xoom, and Zoomph, are riding on the coattails of the Zoom success. Zoom-sounding companies are also getting investors’ attention. One of Zoom’s major investors, VC giant Sequoia Capital, also invested in Zūm, a childcare and transportation startup, and Xoom, a mobile payment app.
Obviously, not every zoom-y startup chose their names based on Zoom’s success. However, of the hundreds of zoom-sounding trademarks, many were registered after the company’s wild success. This proves that many technology PR companies are taking advantage of the massive popularity of the Zoom brand in order to further their client’s success. And with a solid fundraising record for zoom-y companies, this may not be a bad strategy.
Hiring a technology PR company that understands how to leverage timely trends is a major part of a new startup’s success. Working alongside a professional PR agency is an important step in bringing awareness for your brand. Let us know what your business goals are, and we’ll help you get there the best way you can. Give us a call at + 972 3 9037384 or book a free consultation today.
