Zoom experiences a boost in usage

If you hadn’t already heard of Zoom Video Communications, there is a good chance you’ve made its acquaintance over the past few weeks.

Millions of people are now working from home as part of the intensifying fight against the coronavirus outbreak. In addition to using the video conference for work, many are also tapping it to hold virtual playdates for their kids and virtual happy hours with friends and family banned from gathering in public places.

While the Standard & Poor’s 500 index has plunged by 25% since hitting its peak on Feb. 19, Zoom’s shares have soared by 46% through March 27.

Zoom was already profitable when it went public last April at $36 per share, but since then, its stock has roughly quadrupled. The crisis has cast a spotlight on Zoom, a company founded nine years ago by its CEO Eric Yuan after he defected from Cisco Systems and took about 40 engineers with him. He wanted to refine a concept he first dreamed up during the 1990s as a college student in China who dreaded the 10-hour train trips to see his then-girlfriend, now his wife.

Yuan, 50, recently spoke to the Associated Press during an interview conducted on Zoom.

Are these strange times providing a glimpse at how we are going to be working and living in the future?

I hope this crisis can be over very, very soon, but one thing I know for sure is that companies will learn this is the way to work. I am pretty sure almost every company will be thinking about it and say, “Hey, maybe working from home makes sense,” and maybe let every employee work from home, maybe once a week.

Do you think we will find out that people can be more productive at home?

It’s too early to tell whether it’s more productive or less productive, at least for me. I am finding I have even more meetings, and every day I miss the launch time, so I am also learning how to adapt to all this working from home.

Zoom primarily has been used by businesses. Are you discovering new social applications now that people are using it to virtually hang out too?

That is not our intention. But kids are pretty smart, they always figure out new use cases. There are some very cool consumer use cases. For now, I am just telling my team and reminding myself this is a very critical time because we are in a crisis.

Do you still see personal, physical interaction as an important element in society?

I think for the foreseeable future, that’s absolutely right. We still haven’t been able to have cool features like a virtual hug that you can actually feel. We talk about that, but we don’t have that. Or when you drink tea or coffee, with one click you can digitize a smell. That’s why you still have to have the personal interactions.