Twilio Performance May Indicate Cloud Communications Growth in 2020

Cloud communications company Twilio is an interesting case study in the virtual PBX and larger business communications space. Specializing in embedded, software-driven business communications, the company’s platform enables phones, VoIP and messaging to be seamlessly integrated with web, desktop and mobile software. The company has a large global presence, boasting 24 offices in 14 countries, and was named one of America’s most JUST companies by Forbes and JUST Capital in 2019. The award honors publicly traded companies in  the areas of fair pay, ethical leadership and community support.

And yet Twilio’s stock performance throughout 2019 can be described as volatile. A recent analysis from Yahoo! Finance shows Twilio stock shares soared to 56 percent in the first half of the year, but were up only a little over 15 percent by the end of it. What that means for the company, and the cloud computing and virtual PBX sector at large, is up for debate.

One of the key factors in the company’s lack of profitability and stock volatility seems to be a string of acquisitions. Twilio completed its acquisition of email API platform provider SendGrid last February, dropping around $3 billion on the buyout. In 2018, the company scooped up speech analytics company Ytica for an undisclosed amount, following the 2017 acquisition of Swedish SMS messaging provider Beepsend. Previous acquisitions include an $8.5 million buyout of Tikal Technologies, developer of the Kurento WebRTC open source project, and Authy, a startup providing two-factor authentication services.

Profitability aside, 2020 looks bright for Twilio. With recent market expansions in France and Japan, and the December announcement of Verified SMS capabilities for its platform, the company is heading in the right direction. The new feature enables Twilio customers to send authenticated and branded SMS messages using the Google Message application, with the assurance that messages are being sent securely. The feature is already being used by 1-800-Flowers.com, Cover, Expensify, MINDBODY, SoFi and Stackin’.

While technology and business services companies currently comprise the majority of Twilio’s customers, features like Verified SMS are designed to instill digital confidence and expand the company’s reach to other markets like finance, education, healthcare and hospitality. It’s a path many cloud communications companies are following, and as that digital confidence grows, we can expect to see broader deployment of a range of cloud communications solutions throughout the coming year.