HKMB Hong Kong Means Business

Hong Kong Means Business Hong Kong Means Business
  • Login / Register

Languages

  • EN
  • 繁
  • 简
  • Events
  • My Feed
  • Contact HKTDC
  • Subscribe
  • Subscribe

Section Menu

  • multimedia
  • market spotlight
  • first person
  • Venture Hong Kong
  • heads-up
  • inside china
  • life & style
  • hktdc research

Languages

  • EN
  • 繁
  • 简
  • HKTDC.com |
  • About HKTDC |
  • My HKTDC |
  • Login / Register |

HKTDC.com About HKTDC My HKTDC

Login Register

Hong Kong Means Business

Section Menu

  • multimedia
  • market spotlight
  • first person
  • Venture Hong Kong
  • heads-up
  • inside china
  • life & style
  • hktdc research

https://hkmb.hktdc.com/en/1X0AKNNG

first person
SAVE FOR LATER
SHARE / SEND

"Scan QR Code" in WeChat and tap "..." to share.

Remote conferencing zooms out

The COVID-19 pandemic drove an overnight transformation of a video-link platform into a social network.

13 July 2020

Abe Smith

As well as mammoth challenges, the COVID-19 pandemic has also brought opportunities – not least to the technology sector. As the world went into lockdown and work, educational and social activities became virtual, videoconferencing app Zoom experienced unprecedented growth. Its user-friendly platform has prompted many businesses to use it as a virtual office, while schools, friends and families have also utilised it in huge numbers globally, according to its operator Zoom Video.

The NASDAQ-listed communication technology company recently posted an extraordinary set of financial results indicating revenue rose 169% year on year for the first quarter of 2021, and the number of customers contributing more than US$100,000 in trailing 12-months’ revenue is up 90% year on year. The increase in users is similarly extraordinary. “We are humbled and proud that the usage of Zoom has grown from 10 million daily meeting participants per day in December 2019 to 300 million in April 2020 as we work around-the-clock to ensure that businesses, schools, and other users across the world can stay connected and operational during this global pandemic,” said Abe Smith, Head of International at Zoom Video.

Bloomberg said in a recent article that Zoom has gone from a conferencing app to the pandemic’s social network. What’s your take?
During this time of isolation, we feel incredibly privileged to be in a position to help people stay connected, whether you are a global corporation that needs to maintain business continuity, a local government agency working to keep your community functioning, a school teacher educating students remotely, or a friend that wants to host a happy hour to spark some joy during social distancing.

We also feel an immense responsibility. Usage of Zoom has ballooned overnight – far surpassing what we expected when we first announced our desire to help in late February. To put this growth in context, as of the end of December last year, the maximum number of daily meeting participants, both free and paid, was approximately 10 million. In March this year, we reached more than 200 million daily meeting participants (free and paid). As of April this year, we reached more than 300 million free and paid daily meeting participants, a 50% increase just from March to April.

What makes up the Zoom market in Hong Kong?
For Hong Kong, enterprises and schools are definitely the major users of our platform due to the lockdown in the past few months. Working and studying at home has become a new normal in the city. We are glad to support Hong Kong as people transition into new ways of working and learning.

What were the biggest challenges the massive jump in users posed for you?
Our platform was built primarily for enterprise customers – large institutions with full IT support. We didn’t design the product with the foresight that, in a matter of weeks, every person in the world would suddenly be working, studying and socialising from home. We now have a much broader set of users who are utilising our product in myriad unexpected ways, presenting us with challenges we did not anticipate when the platform was conceived.

Zoom takes user-security extremely seriously and as part of our 90-day plan announced in April, we have doubled down on our commitment to security and are working to better identify, address and fix issues.

How can we use Zoom more securely?
We’ve been educating users on security best-practices for setting up their meetings, such as avoiding sharing private meeting links and passwords publicly on websites, social media or other public forums, and encouraging anyone hosting large-scale or public events to utilise Zoom’s webinar solution. We strongly encourage all users not to post links to sensitive meetings on public websites and recommend the use of password protection and virtual waiting rooms to ensure uninvited users cannot join.

What is good Zoom etiquette?
It is actually similar to offline meetings. Before the meeting, dial in a few minutes before to set up and prepare for the meeting. During the meeting, mute your microphone when necessary and always remember that everyone can see you, so think about your actions on camera. We suggest users turn on their cameras, as your tone, facial expressions, and body language communicate as much as your words do. It adds more emotion when others can actually see your face.

Once the pandemic ends, will Zoom go back to being a corporate videoconferencing company, or has the pandemic changed you for good?
Given how quickly our platform is adapting each day to better address all of these new users, we don’t want to speculate too much on what the future holds. For now, we’re focused on helping as many people and businesses as we can stay connected – whether they’re hospitals, schools, financial institutions, governments or users looking to stay in touch with colleagues, friends and family.

Related link
Zoom

BACK TO TOP ^
CONTENT PROVIDED BY
    Topics:
  • Telecommunications,
  • Hong Kong,
  • e-business,
  • e-commerce,
  • start-ups
  • Telecommunications
  • Hong Kong
Home

Article Topics

ARTICLE TOPICS

TELECOMMUNICATIONS24760
HONG KONG36026
E-BUSINESS80889
E-COMMERCE72199
START-UPS98715

ARTICLE TOPICS

TELECOMMUNICATIONS24760
HONG KONG36026
E-BUSINESS80889
E-COMMERCE72199
START-UPS98715

Innovation terms banner block

interest_article

YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN

29 April 2022

SMEs target passage to India

27 April 2022

Second Hand News: The Time of the Pre-owned Watch

19 April 2022

NFT memories are for keeps

11 April 2022

Present perfect

Related Events

RELATED EVENTS

5 - 8 July 2022

HKTDC Hong Kong Electronics Fair (Spring Edition) 2022

5 - 8 September 2022

Hong Kong Pavilion at FHA–Food & Beverage, Singapore

13 - 16 October 2022

HKTDC Hong Kong Electronics Fair 2022 (Autumn Edition)

9 - 11 November 2022

HKTDC Hong Kong International Medical and Healthcare Fair 2022
FIND AN EVENT

Social Share

FOLLOW US

GET WEEKLY UPDATES

newpaper-img

GET OUR WEEKLY EMAIL UPDATES

banner-img


I acknowledge that the above information may be used by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) for incorporation in all or any of its database for direct marketing or business matching purpose (and may therefore become available to the public within and/or outside of Hong Kong for use by them), and for any other purposes as stated in the Privacy Policy Statement; I confirm that I have the consent and the authority of each individual named in this form to release their personal data for the purposes stated herein.


*For non-EU/EEA customers, please skip this box which is solely for EU/EEA customers as required by the relevant data protection law in the EU.

THANK YOU

Thank you for registering.

SHARE THIS STORY

EMAIL
LINKEDIN
WeChat
FACEBOOK
TWITTER
WHATSAPP

ID: HKTDCofficial

Don't have an account?

Create An Account

successfully added on your preferences.