Best Free Video Conferencing Platforms: Zoom, DingTalk, Tencent Meeting and More
Due to the outbreak of the COVID-19, most of Chinese people have been suggested to stay at home and many companies have shifted to remote work during this unique period. As a result, a reliable video conferencing platform has become the backbone of many companies. Fortunately, there are dozens of professional online collaboration tools in Chinese market, and some providers, including Alibaba, ByteDance, Huawei, and Zoom are offering free trials until the end of the epidemic. Here is our shortlist of the best free video conferencing platforms used for working remotely in China.
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6 Free Video Conferencing Apps
Zoom
When it comes to video conferencing software, Zoom is one of the most popular options globally. It offers different plans for enterprises, including a basic free option. Multiple attendees can share their screens at the same time, making it easier to collaborate. But for free users, there is a 40-minute time limit on group meetings. The good thing is that Zoom has temporarily lifted the limit and is providing unlimited time to collaborate in China during the coronavirus outbreak. For short online meetings that require robust screen sharing capabilities, the free Zoom meeting will be a nice choice.
Alibaba DingTalk
DingTalk, literally known as Ding Ding in Chinese, is an all-in-one mobile workplace, which enables text, photo, voice and video communication, workflow management and collaboration among team members for enterprises of various sizes, supporting up to 3,000 members in a single group chat. Launched by Alibaba Group in January 2015, DingTalk, which is free, has become China’s largest enterprise messenger app with more than 100 million users. It’s also an online education streaming platform. Amid the COVID-19 outbreak, many primary and middle schools in China have been relying on DingTalk to resume classes.
Tencent Meeting
In December 2019, Tencent Cloud released a cloud video meeting product called Tencent Meeting. Due to the recent epidemic, the online meeting app experienced a huge download increase and became one of the most downloaded free apps in China’s iOS App Store after DingTalk. Tencent Meeting is a communications software that combines video conferencing, online meetings, chat, and mobile collaboration by leveraging cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and online security technologies.
ByteDance Lark
ByteDance’s Slack-like Lark provides users with remote office and video conference services by offering its complete package at no cost at all from January 28 to May 1, 2020. Lark includes unlimited audio and video conferencing, approval management, asynchronous calendars, unlimited online document and form creation, and 100 GB per user of cloud storage space.
WeChat Work
Tencent’s WeChat has become the default messaging app for everyday life in China, but its enterprise version, the WeChat Work, has yet to conquer the workplace. It is a business communication and office collaboration tool to provide a similar communication experience to WeChat and connects with WeChat in an all-round closed loop. It also offers productivity tools such as Event, Meeting, WeDoc and WeDrive, and flexible OA apps for effective business communication and management.
Huawei Cloud WeLink
In December 2019, Huawei Cloud launched its cloud-based enterprise software WeLink for both governments and companies alike. Similar to Slack, WeLink is a tool for enterprise internal communication and cooperation and is set to compete with Tencent’s WeChat Work, and Alibaba’s DingTalk, while catering to larger corporations. From January 25 to June 1, Huawei WeLink will provide users with free video conference services to help people reduce face-to-face communication during the COVID-19 outbreak.
