Analyzing Zoom’s Popularity
Jun 9th, 2020 by Aswath
Zoom is the current darling when it comes to conferencing service. Consequently, many have attempted to find out the secret to their success. Both by people technically knowledgeable as well as general users. This review that appears in Inc is one of the latest.
It lists three points that distinguishes Zoom from others:
- You don’t have to download anything or sign up for anything
- You can see everyone
- Test computer audio
But these are not unique to Zoom. Actually they are somewhat misleading. It is still a mystery to me as to why they are successful. Let me take each item and elaborate.
You don’t have to download anything or sign up for anything
It is not really correct that there is no need to download anything or sign up for anything. If you are a host of a meeting, you need to be a registered user. And it asks me to install an extension in my browser. On the other hand, any service based WebRTC will not require installation of any extension. Sign up is strictly an administrative matter. There are services that do not require registration. Not requiring any downloads for guests is the direct result of WebRTC and not unique to Zoom – if anything they are Johnny come lately.
You can see everyone
Over the years VC systems have tried different screen layouts. Depending on the use case, one scheme may be more appropriate than others. In a collegial setting where it is norm for multiple people to speak at once or people recreating a music concert, gallery view is preferable; but speaker view may be more appropriate for a webinar with a question and answer period. For a working meeting among a well established team members, the facial video is only incidental; what is more critical is the shared screen. This suggests a screen layout used by around.co
Test computer audio
Many VC systems go through a preview step where you can check that local audio/video works fine. I don’t think it is unique to Zoom. Some even check current network conditions by measuring delay and jitter. I am not sure what is to be gained with this initial check? More often than not the network congestion is transient; the initial condition is no indication of what will happen during the call. The one thing it will catch is how good is the local network; since most of us use a WiFi connection this may be useful.
All in all, it is clear that Zoom is a popular service and we need to explore why it is so. But the three items listed by this reviewer can not be the reasons.