Zoom’s success: what's so humanistic about a cloud meeting software?

Most probably you have heard of video-conferencing/cloud meeting platforms like Skype, WebEx, GoToMeeting, Microsoft Teams, and Google Hangouts, to name a few, that have been helping people connect online to hold meetings, share content interactively, and even host and join social events. But you might be thinking “yes but I have also heard about Zoom!” Yes, you are right. Zoom has been hearing you a lot recently, after all. Isn’t it?

We might unanimously agree that none of the other similar platforms had an impact on us as great as this app has left in a matter of days. Well, that’s understandable: a friend in need is a friend indeed. The Covid-19 pandemic shockingly forced everyone of us to distance ourselves from our loved ones, coworkers, neighbors, companies, universities, and social gatherings. For most of us, it was deeply saddening. Timely, Zoom joined our life, and we loved its entry.

While on the one hand, it is true that our lifetime perception of brands is greatly affected by the situation we met the brand for the first time, the fact that Zoom had done a lot of good work already is prominent on the other; especially the vision of the man behind it—Zoom CEO, Eric Yuan. And this is the reason, I believe, the platform will continue to be part of our professional and social life when the quarantine is over. We will talk about other reasons too, let’s first look at what makes the brand so humanistic and empathetic—otherwise a mere software package.

Eric Yuan left China in the late 1980’s with the vision to use technology to create a handy, easy, affordable and portable platform for users to connect online mainly through video-based interaction. Eric worked with WebEx as head of engineering for several years and brought it to top until Cisco bought it for $3.2 in 2007. Eric continued with the WebEx under Cisco and kept leading it to success. During his time at WebEx, Eric learned to be customers centric and deeply empathetic towards customers—which WebEx was not. Analysts now believe that WebEx was booming because there wasn’t much competition in the video-conferencing segment despite Microsoft and Google’s presence.

With this knowledge at hand, and the vision in mind, Eric left Cisco to create a new platform which improved on WebEx’s deficiencies, and he did it. In January 2013, he finally launched Zoom. Eric’s vision turned to be the purpose behind the platform. So, now you get what is behind, the ease, speed, features, and cost at which Zoom has been helping you. Let’s now talk about Zoom’s success.

It’s no surprise then that Zoom’s stock skyrocketed 67% form start of February to end of March 2020. Some people might be skeptical of this jump attributing it to the 30 times increase in the app’s daily downloads due to the Covid-19 forcing people to work and study from home. Understandably, they will question the sustainability of this success of a company that just went public in mid-2019. But here are a few things that suggest Zoom will continue to be the best video-conferencing platform although active users will significantly drop once the quarantine is over.

First of all, the brand has got a high recognition and affiliation with people worldwide by connecting them in time of isolation; companions of hard times are remembered longer. In fact, people are arranging birthday parties, meetings, dance, and yoga sessions, and even weddings on Zoom, they are creating memories with it which is especially good for a brand’s relationship with consumers. It is also being associated with a hallmark event thus has a greater impact on our minds and better chance of recall later. For example, one teacher commented “I am going to use Zoom to take a class when I can’t join physically, previously, I took make up classes on such occasions which neither I nor my students liked.” I am sure going to opt for Zoom in my professional life, just because I am using it as a student.

Second, Zoom’s features, value for money, focus on video (unlike Skype which was an audio app and then adopted video), lower data requirement, and mobility were all being praised long before Covid-19 outbreak—2014. Zoom was constantly improving some very important videoconferencing metrics including lag between video and audio, eye contact, and ease of interface even when no one saw this pandemic coming. The company was valued at $1 billion in 2017.

Third, most of the businesses, government agencies and universities are learning it the hard way that distance learning and work from home are very crucial steps to be taken. Consequently, most of the post-corona world will be digital with business meetings and learnings of virtually all kinds happening online. Thus, market for video-conferencing and cloud meetings is likely to increase rather than decrease.

Finally, in terms of features, price, brand recognition, and connection with customers, Zoom has surpassed competition. This position of the brand is becoming hard to beat for the closes of its competitors, including players such as Microsoft (Teams and Skype) and Google (Hangouts).

Boom! Praise is over and other side of the coin pops: Zoom faces a bunch of risks that can impact its valuation and performance adversely. Worst even, from a friend it can turn into a nightmare for users if the concerns raised about its security by Apple turn out to be true. Employees and students also feel privacy as main issue because lectures and meetings are being recorded not really with the consent of all the stakeholders.

Final thought

Zoom as a brand has taken the world with storm, for its recent boom, the Covid-19 is being credited but the author is of the view that it had done all its hard work, it just met opportunity now. For the same reason, it is argued that Zoom's success will be sustained as world shifts to a more digitally advance and connected while physically distant place.
How zoom has recently helped in you? Or you have concerns regarding safety and privacy over the platform. Let us know your opinion in the comments below.