Google launches Meet as free app to compete with Zoom

Tech giant Google's video conference app, Google Meet, will be available to anyone with an email address free of charge starting in May, the company announced Wednesday.

The offer brings new competition to video conferencing app Zoom, which saw its stock fall Wednesday after three months of sharp growth as the coronavirus pandemic prompted people to start working and connecting via online meeting apps from home.

"We believe that the more we do from home, the more we do to help," Javier Soltero, vice president of Google's app toolkit "G Suite," said Wednesday on "Varney & Co."

Zoom reached 300 million users on April 23, whereas Google Meet's userbase surpassed 100 million in the same month, and the company is adding about 3 million new users every day, Soltero said in a Wednesday blog post.

Meet, which previously cost users $6 per month for its "basic" plan subscription that came with access to a number of other G-Suite apps, will now be free for anyone who signs up with an email address with Google's Gmail app.

More than 6 million businesses and organizations and 120 million students and teachers currently use G Suite. Those who are already subscribed to the app will be able to enable meet at no cost, Soltero said.

(Source: Fox Business)