Chime, Amazon's (NASDAQ: AMZN) video conferencing and chat application, hasn't seen the level of popularity that other video and chat apps have during the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent upswell of remote work environments.
Compared to Zoom Video Communications (NASDAQ: ZM) and Slack Technologies (NYSE: WORK), Amazon has been left behind in this market. Microsoft Teams (NYSE: MSFT) has also experienced a surge in users that Chime, which was first announced back in 2017, simply hasn't and, at this point, presumably won't.
Amazon Chime's features include video and audio conferencing, team collaboration, and working in sync with Alexa, Amazon's artificial intelligence (AI) technology that serves as a cloud-based virtual assistant.
While Amazon, specifically Amazon Web Services (AWS), certainly could attempt to make a move in acquiring Zoom or Slack, in an effort to seize more control in this market area, analysts don't believe that level of acquisition is very likely.
"The Salesforces (NYSE: CRM) of the world, the ServiceNows (NYSE: NOW), even companies like Zoom - these are not the companies we think AWS will be interested in," said Jeb Su, an analyst at Atherton Technology Research.
Comparatively, companies like Microsoft and Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL) are more likely to proceed with a large-scale acquisition. Last fiscal year, for example, Microsoft spent more than $9 billion on acquisitions while Amazon spent only $1.65 billion in 2018.
According to Daniel Newman, Futurum Research analyst, Amazon may be more positioned to make a series of small acquisitions, similar to strategies used in the past by companies like Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO).
Technologies like Zoom and Slack are experiencing surges since they support business meetings and collaborations necessary for employees to successfully work from home, a trend which has been on the rise for some time.
As of 2015, 3.9 million workers in the U.S. were remote employees. By 2018, that number grew to 5 million. In fact, working from home has grown 11% faster than normal work. Now, with today's increase in remote work amid social distancing measures to curb the coronavirus pandemic, while exact figures are difficult to gauge, more people are clearly working from home than ever before.
Many employees won't continue working from home once restrictions are lifted. However, it seems likely that the current environment will undoubtedly influence how employees work in the future, especially considering the desire to work from home has already been there. Plus workers now have an opportunity to demonstrate and prove the viability of a remote working structure.
Based on estimates by Global Workforce Analytics, "25-30% of the workforce will be working-from-home multiple days a week by the end of 2021."