Thread by @gokulr

1. @zoom_us is the leader in video collaboration today. Many use cases like telemedicine, fitness, education have been force-fitted on top of Zoom due to the pandemic.

2. However, looking out five years (or even sooner), each use case will have its own set of apps, custom built from the ground up. The growth of the Zoom app itself, through strong, will be far outstripped by the growth of “the rest”.

3. @zoom_us has a huge opportunity to be the video infrastructure that powers these apps. Zoom could become the AWS for video and real-time communication.

4. However, most startups I’ve spoken with don’t use Zoom as video infrastructure because of 2 primary reasons: limited customizabilty and lack of self serve capabilities (per a startup, “everything has to be approved by someone at Zoom”).

5. In this vacuum, companies like Daily.co and Agora.io have emerged to provide easy to use video capabilities for any app. These companies are growing very fast, showing how much demand there is.

6. Some startups have explored the open source WebRTC project; though extremely powerful, WebRTC is hard to use and wrapper SDKs are needed, otherwise it could add 6+ months to development. That’s basically what Daily.co, Agora.io, etc provide.

7. If Zoom doesn’t act fast to build a self-serve and flexible API that leverages the company’s infrastructure and technology stack but is not beholden to the Zoom app or interface, it risks missing the boat on a massive opportunity.

8. And, as many have pointed out (h/t @hunterwalk), @Twilio already has a strong Video API and developer mindshare, so it will be a formidable competitor.

9. The race is on to become the RT communication infra layer for the Internet! Will the winner be Internet infra incumbent @awscloud, communication API incumbent @twilio , a specialized startup like Daily.co, or video app incumbent @zoom_us? Should be fascinating.