思科计划收购在线活动初创公司Slido 以加强旗下WebEx功能

思科昨天宣布了收购Slido的计划。Slido是一家帮助企业提供更好的在线活动（例如虚拟会议和网络研讨会等等）受众体验的初创公司。

Cisco plans to use the startups technology to enhance the capabilities of its Webex videoconferencing platform, which competes with Zoom and Microsoft Teams.

思科计划将Slido的技术用于增强旗下WebEx视频会议平台的功能，目前WebEx的主要竞争对手有Zoom和微软Team群聊与协作工具。

Slido provides a cloud service that provides the ability to add interactive elements to online events for the audiences watching them. Hosts can display polls on attendees screens to ask their input about the topics currently being discussed by the speakers. Slido also makes it possible to share interactive quizzes related to the theme of an event as a way of increasing user engagement.

Slido的云服务器为观看在线活动的观众提供添加交互元素的功能。活动的主持可以在参与者屏幕上显示轮询信息，获取他们对发言者讨论主题的输入。Slido还可以分发与活动主题相关的交互式测验，以增加用户参与度。

For virtual events that use a question-and-answer format, Slido provides a tool that enable hosts to loop viewers into the discussion. Members of the audience can submit questions via the startups service and then vote on which questions they believe should be answered by the speakers. The subjects that draw the most interest can then be discussed on the virtual stage.

对于那些使用问答格式的虚拟活动，Slido提供的工具能够令主持人以循环的方式令观看者参与讨论。观众成员可以通过初创公司Slido的服务提交问题，然后投票表决确定发言者应该回答哪一个问题。还可以在虚拟平台上讨论受到最多关注的话题。

Cisco will incorporate Slidos capabilities into Webex to enhance its audience engagement features, Abhay Kulkarni, the vice president of Ciscos Webex Meetings unit, wrote in a blog post today. On top of Slidos attendee-facing features, Cisco is gaining audience analytics capabilities that enable enterprises to measure how well their virtual events are received and identify opportunities to make improvements. Plus, the acquisition buys the networking giant Slidos sizable installed base of more than 7 million monthly users.

思科WebEx会议部门副总裁Abhay Kulkarni在博客文章里表示，思科计划将SlidoS功能纳入WebEx，以增强WebEx的观众参与功能。思科除了获得Slidos的参加者功能外，还获得了观众分析功能，观众分析功能令企业能够评测自己的虚拟活动的观众接受度以及找到改进的机会。此外，该收购还会一并购入SlidoS旗下超过700万月用户的广大安装用户群。

WebEx is playing an increasingly important role in Ciscos product strategy as it shifts toward a business model centered on subscription-based software and cloud services. Software and services contributed more than 50% of the companys revenue for the first time in the first half of 2020, with a part of that contribution coming from the Applications business that includes WebEx. Ciscos cybersecurity business is another important element of its shift to a software-centric model.

思科在向以基于订阅的软件和以云服务为中心的商业模式转型，WebEx也就在思科产品战略上发挥着越来越重要的作用。思科的软件和服务在2020年上半年对公司收入的贡献首次超过50％，其中一部分来自包括WebEx的应用程序业务的贡献。 思科网络安全业务是思科向以软件为中心模型转型的另一个重要因素。

Besides acquisitions such as the Slido deal announced today, Cisco is also enhancing its cloud portfolio through organic development efforts. The company in June introduced a new version of Webex with an enhanced artificial intelligence assistant that can help troubleshoot technical issues and improved connectors for third-party enterprise applications such as Box.

除了宣布收购Slido等消息外，思科也在通过开发工作加强旗下的云产品组合。思科6月份推出的WebEx新版本配备了增强人工智能助理功能，增强人工智能助理可以帮助解决技术问题及帮助第三方企业应用程序（例如Box）找到改进连接器上的一些问题。