ZOOM BOOMS AS PANDEMIC DRIVES MILLIONS TO VIDEO SERVICE

ZOOM Video Communications is rapidly emerging as the latest internet gold mine as millions of people flock to its conferencing service to see colleagues, friends and family while tethered to their homes during the pandemic.

Tuesday’s release of the once-obscure company’s financial results for the February-April

period provided a window into the astronomical growth that has turned it into a Wall Street star.

Zoom’s revenue for its fiscal first-quarter more than doubled from the same time last year to $328 million, resulting in a profit of $27 million – up from just $198,000 a year ago.

The numbers exceeded analysts’ already heightened expectations, providing another lift to a rocketing stock that has more than tripled in price so far this year while the benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500 index has fallen 5 per cent.

The surge left Zoom with a market value of about $59 billion – greater than the combined market values of the four largest US airlines, which have seen their businesses hammered by the coronavirus outbreak that has dramatically curtailed travel.

“Videoconferencing is going to become a mainstream service,” predicted Zoom CEO Eric Yuan, who co-founded the nine years ago.

For its full fiscal year, Zoom now expects revenue of about $1.8 billion, nearly tripling in a year. Overall, Zoom now has more than 300 million daily participants attending a meeting held on its service, up from 10 million five months ago. company