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Zoom Communications (officially Zoom Video Communications, Inc.) is a United States-headquartered cloud technology company that develops and markets one of the world's most widely adopted video conferencing and virtual collaboration platforms. Its tools are used across consumer, education, corporate, government, and non-profit sectors for meetings, distance learning, virtual events, and remote team coordination.
Key moments
2011Founded by Eric Yuan, a former lead engineer for Cisco's Webex collaboration platform, after he left the legacy enterprise tech firm to pursue a simpler, more accessible video call product vision.
2013Launched its first public video conferencing service, reaching 1 million monthly active users before the end of the calendar year.
2019Completed its initial public offering on the NASDAQ stock exchange, listing under the ticker symbol ZM.
2020Saw explosive, unprecedented user growth alongside global COVID-19 pandemic remote work and lockdown mandates, while also facing widespread public scrutiny of unaddressed privacy and platform security vulnerabilities.
2021 to presentExpanded its product ecosystem far beyond core video calls to include dedicated contact center tools, hybrid workplace management software, and specialized virtual event hosting features.
Zoom operates in a highly saturated, rapidly evolving global virtual collaboration market defined by both deep-pocketed incumbent rivals and fast-moving niche competitors. Its market position, built largely on mass consumer and small-to-medium business popularity before the pandemic, has required ongoing adjustment to retain users while expanding into high-value enterprise segments.
Major direct competitors include Microsoft Teams, which enjoys massive distribution as a bundled feature of the widely used Office 365 productivity suite; Cisco Webex, the long-standing enterprise collaboration leader with decades of pre-existing large corporate client contracts; and Google Meet, which integrates natively into Google Workspace to offer frictionless access for users already embedded in Google's productivity ecosystem.
Zoom's defining early competitive edge was its unusual focus on minimal onboarding friction: users could join a call via a simple shareable link with no mandatory account creation or large, slow software downloads, a priority that most legacy enterprise-focused competitors deprioritized in the 2010s.
A key ongoing competitive tradeoff for Zoom is balancing enterprise demand for robust security, compliance certifications, and granular administrative controls, while avoiding the feature bloat that would erase the ease-of-use advantage that drove its initial viral mainstream adoption.
Smaller niche competitors targeting specific use cases including telehealth, virtual trade shows, and creative remote production have captured dedicated subsets of users, as these platforms offer purpose-built workflows that the generalist Zoom product does not prioritize.
key people
Eric Yuan (chairman and CEO)
Xuedong Huang (CTO)
services
Videotelephony
Online chat
Business telephone systems
products
Zoom
revenue
US$4.67 billion (2025)
operating income
US$813 million (2025)
net income
US$1.01 billion (2025)
assets
US$11.0 billion (2025)
equity
US$8.96 billion (2025)
num employees
7,412 (2025)
website
zoom.com
footnotes
Financials as of January 31, 2025.‡R1R‡
Zoom Communications, Inc. (formerly Zoom Video Communications, Inc., commonly shortened to Zoom, and stylized as zoom) is an American communications technology company headquartered in San Jose, California, United States.It is primarily known for the videoconferencing application Zoom.
The company was founded in 2011 by Eric Yuan, a former Cisco engineer and executive. It launched its software in 2013. Its software products have faced public and media scrutiny related to security and privacy issues, though the company has taken measures to address these issues.[2][3][4]
History
Early years
Zoom was founded by Eric Yuan, a former corporate vice president for Cisco Webex.[5] He left Cisco in April 2011 with 40 engineers to start a new company,[6] originally named Saasbee, Inc.[7] The company had trouble finding investors because many people thought the videotelephony market was already saturated.[7] In June 2011, the company raised $3million of seed money from WebEx founder Subrah Iyar, former Cisco SVP and General Counsel Dan Scheinman, and venture capitalists Matt Ocko, TSVC, and Bill Tai.[7]
In May 2012, the company changed its name to Zoom, influenced by Thacher Hurd's children's book Zoom City.[7] In September 2012, Zoom launched a beta version that could host conferences with up to 15 video participants.[8] In November 2012, the company signed Stanford University as its first customer.[7] The service was launched in January 2013 after the company raised a $6million Series A round from Qualcomm Ventures, Yahoo! founder Jerry Yang, WebEx founder Subrah Iyar, and former Cisco SVP and General Counsel Dan Scheinman.[9] Zoom launched version 1.0 of the program allowing the maximum number of participants per conference to be 25.[10] By the end of its first month, Zoom had 400,000 users and by May 2013 it had 1million users.
Growth
In July 2013, Zoom established partnerships with B2B collaboration software providers, such as Redbooth (then Teambox),[11] and also created a program named Works with Zoom, which established partnerships with Logitech, Vaddio,[12] and InFocus.[13][14][15] In September 2013, the company raised $6.5million in a Series B round from Horizon Ventures, and existing investors.At that time, it had 3million daily meeting participants.[16]
IPO and onward
On April 18, 2019, the company became a public company via an initial public offering; since then, it has been listed on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol ZM.After pricing at US$36 per share, the share price increased over 72% on the first day of trading.[34][35] Prior to the IPO, Dropbox invested $5million in Zoom.[36] The company first became profitable in 2019.[37][38][35]
Due to the increase in
Privacy and security issues
Zoom has been criticized for "security lapses and poor design choices" that have resulted in heightened scrutiny of its software.[57][4] The company has also been criticized for its privacy and corporate data sharing policies.[58][59][60] Security researchers and reporters have criticized the company for its lack of transparency and poor encryption practices.Zoom initially claimed to use "end-to-end encryption" in its marketing materials,[61] but later clarified it meant "from Zoom end point to Zoom end point" (meaning effectively between Zoom servers and Zoom clients), which The Intercept described as misleading and "dishonest".[62]
Censorship
In April 2020, Citizen Lab warned that having much of Zoom's research and development in China could "open up Zoom to pressure from Chinese authorities."[80] In June 2020, Zoom was criticized for closing multiple accounts of U.S. and Hong Kong–based groups, including that of Zhou Fengsuo and two other human rights activists, who were commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre.The accounts were later re-opened, with the company stating that in the future it "will have a new process for handling similar situations."[44] Zoom responded that it has to "comply with local laws," even "the laws of governments opposed to free speech."[81][82][83] Zoom subsequently admitted to shutting down activist accounts at the request of the Chinese government.[84]
On February 4, 2015, the company received US$30million in Series C funding from investors including Emergence Capital, Horizons Ventures (Li Ka-shing), Qualcomm Ventures, Jerry Yang, and Patrick Soon-Shiong.[17] At that time, Zoom had 40million users, with 65,000 organizations subscribed and a total of 1billion meeting minutes since it was established.[18] Over the course of 2015 and 2016, the company integrated its software with Slack, Salesforce, and Skype for Business.[19][20][21] With version 2.5 in October 2015, Zoom increased the maximum number of participants allowed per conference to 50[22] and later to 1,000 for business customers.[23][24] In November 2015, former president of RingCentral David Berman was named president of the company, and Peter Gassner, the founder and CEO of Veeva Systems, joined Zoom's board of directors.[25]
In January 2017, the company raised US$100million in Series D funding from Sequoia Capital at a US$1billion valuation,[26] making it a unicorn.[27][28] In April 2017, Zoom launched a scalable telehealth product allowing doctors to host remote consultations with patients.[29][30] In May, Zoom announced integration with Polycom's conferencing systems, enabling features such as multiple screen and device meetings, HD and wireless screen sharing, and calendar integration with Microsoft Outlook, Google Calendar, and iCal.[31] From September 25–27, 2017, Zoom hosted Zoomtopia 2017, its first annual user conference.At this conference, Zoom announced a partnership with Meta Platforms to integrate Zoom with augmented reality, integration with Slack and Workplace by Facebook, and first steps towards an artificial intelligence (AI) speech recognition program.[32][33]
remote work
,
distance education
, and remote
social relations
during the
COVID-19 pandemic
, usage increased substantially and the Zoom
mobile app
was the 5th most downloaded mobile app in 2020, behind
Zoom announced its first hardware as a service products in July 2020, bundling its videoconferencing software with third-party hardware by DTEN, Neat, Poly, and Yealink, and running on the ServiceNow platform.It began with Zoom Rooms and Zoom Phone offerings, with those services available to US customers, who can acquire hardware from Zoom for a fixed monthly cost.[45][46] On July 15, 2020, the company announced Zoom for Home, a line of products for home use, designed for remote workers. The first product, Zoom for Home - DTEN ME, includes software by Zoom and hardware by DTEN. It consists of a 27-inch screen with three wide-angle cameras and eight microphones, with Zoom software preloaded on the device. It became available in August 2020.[47][48]
In June 2021, Zoom acquired Kites (Karlsruhe Information Technology Solutions), an artificial intelligence-based language translation company with an aim to reduce language barriers in video calls.[49] Zoom's attempt to acquire contact center company Five9 for $14.7billion in September of that year was turned down by Five9's shareholders.[50][51]
Zoom announced that it would cut its workforce by 15 percent, or about 1,300 employees, in February 2023, citing unsustainable growth following rapid scaling to manage the demand of the pandemic.[52] Zoom then acquired Workvivo in April to extend the Zoom platform.[53] Zoom dropped out of the Nasdaq-100 in December.[54]
In November 2024, Zoom Video Communications, Inc. rebranded as Zoom Communications, Inc., dropping 'Video' from its name, to reflect a change towards what CEO Eric Yuan described as "[an] AI-first work platform for human connection".[55] Zoom announced the acquisition of the AI-powered hiring platform BrightHire for an undisclosed amount a year later.[56]
In March 2020, New York State Attorney GeneralLetitia James launched an inquiry into Zoom's privacy and security practices;[63] the inquiry was closed on May 7, 2020, with Zoom not admitting wrongdoing, but agreeing to take added security measures.[64] In the same month, a class-action lawsuit against Zoom was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.According to the lawsuit, Zoom violated the privacy of its users by sharing personal data with Facebook, Google, and LinkedIn, did not prevent hackers from disrupting Zoom sessions, and erroneously claimed to offer end-to-end encryption on Zoom sessions.Zoom settled this lawsuit for $86 million.[65]
On April 1, 2020, Zoom announced a 90-day freeze on releasing new features, to focus on fixing privacy and security issues on Zoom. On July 1, 2020, Yuan wrote a blog post detailing efforts taken by the company to address security and privacy concerns, stating that they released 100 new safety features over the 90-day period. Those efforts include end-to-end encryption for all users, turning on meeting passwords by default, giving users the ability to choose which data centers calls are routed from, consulting with security experts, forming a CISO council, an improved bug bounty program, and working with third parties to help test security. Yuan also stated that Zoom would be releasing a transparency report later in 2020.[66][67][68]
In May 2020, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it was looking into Zoom's privacy practices.[69] The FTC alleged that since at least 2016, "Zoom maintained the cryptographic keys that could allow Zoom to access the content of its customers' meetings, and secured its Zoom Meetings, in part, with a lower level of encryption than promised."[70] On November 9, 2020, a settlement was reached, requiring the company to implement additional security measures.[71]
In December 2020, Zoom announced that it was under investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the United States Attorney for the Northern District of California and that it had received a subpoena in June 2020 from the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York requesting information on the company's interactions with foreign governments and political parties.Both federal prosecutors also sought information and documentation about security and privacy matters regarding Zoom's practices.[72]
On December 19, 2020, a former Zoom executive was charged by the U.S. Department of Justice with conspiracy to commit interstate harassment and unlawful conspiracy to transfer a means of identification.The charges are related to the alleged disruptions to video meetings commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre.[73] Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, New York, said that Xinjiang "Julien" Jin, then 39, was a San Jose, California–based company's main liaison with intelligence and law enforcement agencies of China. Zoom later acknowledged it was the company in question. It said in a statement that it had terminated Jin's employment for violating company policies and was cooperating with the prosecutors. Jin is not in custody because he is based in China.[74][75]
In February 2021, Zoom announced a new feature called Kiosk Mode, which will allow people visiting offices to check in with a receptionist virtually on a kiosk, without any physical contact.[76] A month later, Zoom announced that from August 23, 2021, Zoom would stop selling new and upgraded products directly to customers in mainland China.[77][78] Zoom agreed to pay $85 million to settle a class action lawsuit over the company's alleged sharing of data with Facebook, Linkedin, and Google that year.[79]
In response, a bi-partisan group of U.S. senators requested clarification of the incident from the company.
Partially in response to criticisms of its blocking of the activists accounts as well as expressions of concern by the United States Justice Department, Zoom moved to cease direct sale of its product in mainland China in late August 2020.
In September 2020, following protests and legal concerns raised by the Jewish coalition group #EndJewHatred, Zoom prevented San Francisco State University from using its video conferencing software to host former Palestinian militant and hijacker Leila Khaled, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). In justifying its decision, Zoom cited the PFLP's designation as a terrorist organization by the United States Government and its efforts to comply with U.S. export control, sanctions, and anti-terrorism laws. Facebook and YouTube also joined Zoom in denying their platforms to the conference organizers.Professor Rabab Ibrahim Abdulhadi, one of the conference organizers, criticized Zoom, Google's YouTube and Facebook for censoring Palestinian voices.[87][88][89][90]
