1Internet has recently become the greatest market for successful businesses. One of the most inspiring success stories is that of Zoom. It is an American company offering remote video conferencing services. It is based in California and has offices in Europe, Asia and Australia. The story of Zoom has been a journey for its founder Eric Yuan.
2Eric Yuan was born and lived in China until he was 27 years old. He got his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in applied mathematics and computer science from the Shandong University of Science and Technology in his country. He got married at the age of 22. Yuan immigrated to the U.S. in 1997. His visa application was denied 8 times, but he kept persisting. Finally, on the 9th attempt, he was approved, but the process lasted two years.
3When Yuan arrived in USA, he started his first job in Silicon Valley as a software engineer at a young company called WebEx. In 2006, Yuan got an MBA (Master of Business Administration) from Stanford Business School and became vice president of Engineering at the company. In 2007, Cisco Systems company bought WebEx for $3.2 billion. Yuan wanted to develop new products at Cisco as customers had become dissatisfied with the quality of the services. Yet, he couldn’t convince his bosses to let it happen. So, he left Cisco.
4In 2011, Yuan started his own company and launched the Zoom platform. “I firmly believed I could develop a platform that would make customers happy. More than 40 fellow engineers followed me in my new venture,” he explained. Five years later, Zoom hosted over 20 billion meeting minutes and its customers were 90% of the top 200 U.S. universities.
5The breakout of corona virus pandemic in 2019 was a turning point for Zoom. Lockdowns were announced in almost all countries. Companies, schools and colleges started using Zoom Video Communications to conduct business meetings and deliver classes. Zoom offered its basic plan free for all. It also released a paid plan which allows unlimited meetings. Businesses and schools have to pay a subscription fee for the various products the company offers. On top of that, Zoom also makes money from the promotion of hardware products. The company gained over 2.22 million users in the first months of 2020. Currently, Zoom has 504,900 business customers and a value of $9.2 billion.
6Zoom, however, is facing a number of challenges. One of them is the fierce competitors such as Skype, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet. Another major issue is the privacy and security problem. Security experts and even the FBI warn that Zoom’s default settings aren’t secure enough. Apple was forced to remove the software from Mac computers last year after a serious security threat.
Adapted from: www.startuptalky.com
