"With the COVID-19 lockdowns across the globe, businesses and consumers are adjusting to the new way of working or interacting from home. This is one of the major reasons for the surge in video calling. Although Zoom is the biggest beneficiary so far, it has attracted a couple of security-related concerns. This has given competitors time to scale up their offerings. Internet giants like Google and Facebook too are scaling up their efforts in video calling. The new messenger rooms by Facebook will be more of an attempt to capture the surge in video demand in the consumer/social segments than in enterprises" – Tarun Pathak
(Source: Telecom Paper)
Key Challenges and Highlights:
- Facebook is likely to face a challenge from its own WhatsApp and other platforms in the consumer video call segment. This could be the reason why users can join Messenger Rooms calls without needing a Facebook account.
- As per Facebook, more than 700 million WhatsApp and Messenger users are participating in calls every day.
- Messenger Rooms will be rolling out to a few countries initially before expanding to the rest of the world.