With most people locked down in their homes due to the Covid-19 pandemic, videoconferencing has become the in-thing, and the Zoom app is leading with the highest number of subscribers. As a result, Zoom has seen its earnings figure double during the February-April quarter, reporting $328 million in revenue.
During the same quarter last year, the tech giant’s revenue was at $122 million, showing just how much the company has gained during the pandemic. Even better, the earning came as a surprise as Zoom expected only $200 million in revenue for this quarter.
While Zoom hasn’t revealed how many people used its software over the last few months, the company reports that it has added an unmatched number of free participants, with at least 100,000 K-12 schools included.
So far, Zoom has more than 265,400 subscribers with at least ten employees, a figure that has risen by a whopping 354 percent. The company also said it had added more than 175,000 customers during the pandemic. However, the gains came at a cost, as the annual expenses doubled to $201 million.
Zoom reported its earnings for the first time since the outbreak of the Novel Coronavirus. Therefore, the outcome reveals the company’s performance since Covid-19 was declared a global pandemic. The bountiful growth in revenue is attributed to its video chat software, which has become an essential tool for work meetings and families and friends trying to touch bases during the lockdown period.
According to Zoom, more than 300 million meeting participants use the chat software every day, a figure that was at 10 million in December. While the value dropped from its peak in April, Zoom CEO Kelly Steckelberg expects it to rise above 300 million in the coming days.
Although Zoom videoconferencing service has increased in popularity, the company has faced massive scrutiny of its security practices. Some users complained that the video chats aren’t fully encrypted as Zoom claimed. Also, features expected to ease convenience permitted harassment through the Zoom bombing. Even worse, it was discovered that the app’s Mac Installer was using a “malware-like” approach to speed up things.
In response, the tech giant instituted a 90-day feature freeze, to allow them time to fix the software’s security practices. So far, Zoom has already resolved significant issues such as the questionable installer and convenience features that allowed people to join calls without invitation.
They’re still working on the remaining problems like the actual end-to-end encryption. Zoom obtained the identity service startup Keybase in May and asked its engineers to work towards finding a solution for its end-to-end encryption.
With these changes in place, Zoom expects a surge in its usage, and that it’s not going to lose users over security issues. As such, the company will continue to perform well, and predicts revenue growth of $1.8 billion in the year.
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