Why would JioMeet so blatantly copy Zoom?
Jio had all the time and the resources to build an app that could have been unique and fresh but they chose to use the Zoom like interface. Here’s why!
On the 3rd of July, Indian social media users went crazy when the screenshots of Zoom and JioMeet were shared extensively on every social media platform and news agencies, expressing their feelings about this blatant copy. Anyone with just a glance can notice that everything has been copied from Zoom including the logo and the app is pretty much the exact copy.
I woke up at 10 AM, logged in on Twitter and found at least half a dozen of tweets regarding this. I saved the screenshot, shared it on my Instagram story expressing how could they just copy it! You know where this is headed but that’s not it.
I got over 20 replies to that story with mixed reactions ranging from “We copy our assignments better than them!” to “He (Mukesh Ambani) could have acquired Zoom but why buy something when we can make this at home!”
It got me to thinking! They had over three and half months since the lockdown was first imposed in India, to make an app in competition to Zoom, Google Meet and others, yet somehow, they come up with this? Assuming the team that was working on this might have thought of just copying it to fast track the process, someone from the management would have just scraped the idea of this to save the company from embarrassment. Unless… they just wanted this! What if this was all just a part of the plan!
Why? Wouldn’t this look bad for a brand like Jio?
Well… No! I have two theories to support this. It might be either of them, a combination of both or could be completely something else that I might not have thought of.
Theory 1
Don’t change too much! Indian users hate the change!
Indians headed towards Zoom as soon as the lockdown was imposed due to Covid-19 be it for personal, business or educational purposes. The users were well acquainted with the interface. [1] If you ask them to shift to another application, it would have been way difficult considering a lot of those users are not power users. Although, the users who are actively using Zoom are mostly those who are familiar with the concept of Video Calls and how to host or join them and might have shifted to JioMeet, it would still have been difficult for them to convince their clients, family members and friends to shift to another platform.
With the support of Prime Minister’s call for Atmanirbhar Bharat and the Made in India tag along with Jio’s presence in the market, it’s now quite easy to shift Zoom’s user base to JioMeet without much hassle. All it takes is to install the app and you are good to go.
Theory 2
Any marketing is good marketing! And, when it’s free, it’s the best!
The peak that’s visible is an indication of the success of the marketing strategy of JioMeet. One might argue that on the day of the launch, they might have got a similar response but there would not have been any surety about it. With people sharing memes, jokes and news articles coming up about the similarities, by the end of the day, people who don’t even use Zoom or have not heard about JioMeet now had an idea that there’s an “Indian Zoom” available in the market!
The best thing about this is they had to spend ZERO on this! All they had to do was “Be lazy” to copy and let the people have their share of fun for a day or two! This blog is also an extended result of their marketing strategy.
I personally never liked the idea of marketing through memes and controversies and found it a desperate approach. But, with over time, I have now made my peace with it and when I see it happening every now and then, with positive results in most cases, I believe it can be quite powerful if used properly.
Closing note
With all the resources and the time, they had, to build a fresh, neat and interactive competition of Zoom and Google Meet; they came up with a copied product! I don’t buy this! My guess is they planned it well ahead. They knew they would face backlash for a day or two but they also knew the result of this! Their brand would be unaffected at the end of this. This would provide an easy way out from Zoom to those who were looking for an Indian application and this was just the right time for this!
If you want to give it a try, you can find the android app here and iOS app here.
[1] Thanks, Rithik Jain for pointing this out to me via a DM when I shared the Instagram Story.
