We use Zoho and while I can't speak to the author's intended meaning I can tell you the two factors that keep us with them.
1. Zoho's APIs are more mature. Especially the Remote API which allows you to use the Zoho tools but keep the data on your own servers. That's something Google has no competitor for (last I checked).
2. The customer focus. The company has always been responsive to our requests and there have been occasions where they actually added a feature pretty soon after we asked for it (in fairness others might have asked for it earlier, I don't know)
It boils down to Zoho being focused on creating a great product for their customers while Google seems more interested in proving a point about online software.
1. Zoho's APIs are more mature. Especially the Remote API which allows you to use the Zoho tools but keep the data on your own servers. That's something Google has no competitor for (last I checked).
2. The customer focus. The company has always been responsive to our requests and there have been occasions where they actually added a feature pretty soon after we asked for it (in fairness others might have asked for it earlier, I don't know)
It boils down to Zoho being focused on creating a great product for their customers while Google seems more interested in proving a point about online software.