Learn about Zoom - Free online meeting software

There are thousands of companies struggling with COVID-19, but there are also a few that are still standing, including Zoom Video Communications. The company not only exists, but seems to have changed the way millions of people around the world communicate. Even as many businesses reopen and employees return to the office, Zoom remains the long-term choice.

Founder

Eric Yuan is the founder of Zoom and another major online meeting platform today. Yuan was born in Tai'an, Shandong province, China but started his career in Silicon Valley, USA. He was one of WebEx's first hires. In 2007, when Cisco Systems acquired WebEx, he was appointed VP of Engineering.

After four years at Cisco, Yuan left the company and founded his own company. In a 2019 interview, Yuan shared that although the salary at Cisco is in the six figures, he is not satisfied with what he is doing. Plus, he knew what was about to happen was like a gamble, but never doubted the idea would fail.

9 years since Yuan left Cisco to pursue "happiness", it seems that everything is fine with the Chinese businessman.

Zoom's success not only made Yuan one of the richest people on the planet, with a net worth of $20 billion, but he was also named one of the 100 most influential people of 2020 according to the poll of Zoom. Time Magazine.

Learn about Zoom Free online meeting software Picture 1

Company history

Yuan left Cisco in April 2011. He brought with him 40 Cisco engineers who later became Zoom's pioneers. The company was originally named Saasbee Inc.

Two months later, the company raised $3 million despite investor concerns that the video conferencing industry was saturated.

In 2012, the company changed its name to Zoom, inspired by Thacher Hurd's children's book Zoom City. That same year, the Zoom room was put into operation for the first time, with the first customer being Stanford University.

From 2013 to 2018, the company boomed, raising $142.5 million.

In April 2019, the company went public and offered an IPO at $36 per share. As of November 2020, Zoom shares are selling for about $450 per share.

In 2020, when COVID-19 appeared, Zoom's total number of customers in two months was more than the whole of 2019 - 2.22 million users. The app reached 2.13 million downloads in March 2020 alone. As of June 2020, the company serves 265,400 customers around the world.

Zoom has been named a Leader for Meeting Solutions in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for five consecutive years.

Profile

Zoom Video Communications, Inc. is a communications technology company based in California, USA. It specializes in providing online meeting, conference and chat services.

Despite facing competition from many similar platforms such as Skype, Microsoft Teams, WebEx, and TeamViewer, Zoom still comes out on top. Many consider it an overnight success, but it took the California-based media company 9 years to get to where it is today.

Eric Yuan decided to start Zoom in the hopes of building a conferencing platform that is not only easier to use, but easier to navigate than its competitors. This decision was mainly made due to the lack of online meeting platforms at the time.

Since then, Yuan has transformed Zoom into a platform that is easy for everyone to access and use. Zoom supports free accounts with 40 minutes/meeting and connects with up to 100 people. In addition, Zoom offers annual plans for businesses large and small, allowing large companies to host up to 1,000 people and provide access to unlimited cloud storage. .

While there have been attacks, most notably Zoombing, this hasn't stopped people from using Zoom. In the second quarter alone, the company saw revenue growth of 355% year-over-year, with revenue soaring to $663.5 million from $145.8 million the year before.

Zoom has made a name for itself during the pandemic and looks set to remain a media giant post-pandemic. Recently, the company implemented a platform called Zapps, where users can easily use Zoom and access other applications at the same time.

Some of the apps that are ready for Zoom include Slack, Dropbox, Atlassian, Coursera, and Cameo.

Zoom is headquartered in San Jose, California and has more than 2,500 employees. The company operates on a global scale with offices in the UK, Australia, Japan, France and China.

Competitor

As mentioned, Zoom is not the only online meeting platform on the market. WebEx (Cisco), Skype (Microsoft) and Teams (Microsoft) are all formidable competitors of Zoom.

While all four platforms offer identical services (HD video and audio calls, chat, screen sharing, and support for multiple operating systems), there are several aspects that make Zooms unique. distinctive.

With the free plan, groups can hold up to 300 participants, far more than 100 in WebEx and 50 in Skype. Teams, Skype, and WebEx can also be easily integrated into Microsoft Office 365 and other Microsoft applications, while Zoom can be integrated into Google Drive. Also in WebEx and Teams, creating multiple rooms is still limited.

Kareem Winters

Update 23 August 2021