The History of Zoom Video Communications

As everyone is at home right now, professors and students are now starting to use Zoom Video Communications to connect with their class.  Founded by Cisco Systems and WebEx engineer Eric Yuan, the site reached one million users within two years of its creation in 2011.  Zoom continued its rapid growth from there, reaching 40 million individual users and 65,000 organizations in 2015, and became worth $1 billion in 2017.  The company would go public on the NASDAQ in 2019, and was worth $16 billion at the end of its Initial Public Offering.  

Even though Skype was the dominant web service for online meetings for years, Zoom was likely seen as a way to introduce competition in this specific field.  So many people caught on quickly, likely because they preferred the site's higher quality and greater reach that came along with the initial $9.99 price.  With the number of partnerships and connections that Yuan formed, its quick growth into a service worth billions of dollars made it truly one of the most effective services for online communication.  

And in the past month, Zoom has effectively become a common term in the world of education.  They offered free services to both k-12 schools and colleges during the coronavirus outbreak, and classes have been held on the platform since the stay-at-home orders were initiated.  Over 2.2 million people have joined Zoom since the start of 2020, which is already more than all of 2019.  In addition, the share price for Zoom has increased 263% from its IPO last year, which makes it one of the best choices for investors as concerns are growing over a recession.  

While not the only video conferencing platform, Zoom has taken measures to beat out the competition.  Not only do they offer free services during the COVID-19 pandemic, they also has stronger customer support that offers FAQ's and video tutorials, whereas sites like Skype leaves you to search for answers on your own.  The site also offers better customization services, and while upgraded plans are more expensive, users are able to hold larger meetings and offer greater administration features.

But as with any other online social service, Zoom has faced a number of controversies in its swift rise.  There are concerns about its privacy policy, as the site collects any information taken in a meeting and its reach could lead any administrator to contact anyone in a meeting.  The FBI has also warned that student data and browsing history may also be at risk, which would put Zoom under violation of FERPA.  And just recently in March, the U.S. Federal Court sued Zoom for disclosing data to third parties, as they are also under investigation by the New York State Attorney General's office over their privacy practices.  

Zoom is facing the same controversies as sites like Facebook and Google have, but they should try and come clean and vow to do better.  Because the entire country is using its services, I do not think the backlash would be too severe among users and there would be more willingness to forgive.  But even with their questionable privacy services, Zoom has done a great job in rising from small project to billion-dollar enterprise within just a decade.  Even if their user base and stock price drops at the end of the pandemic, they have still earned the benefit of brand recognition among a wide audience and will certainly retain users.  Skype will likely be worried about Zoom now, since they are now the dominant web meeting platform across the United States and the world.  

An example of a Zoom meeting layout.  

https://zoom.us/about/
https://www.gadgetreview.com/zoom-vs-skype
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoom_Video_Communications