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Business Voices Merkur
SEPT • OCT 2020
‘Thanks to its shiny new servers Zoom is also tipping its growth to continue, predicting revenue of between $495m and $500m for the second quarter of the year.’
servers Zoom is also tipping its growth to continue, predicting revenue of between $495m and $500m for the second quarter of the year. Over the course of its full financial year, Zoom expects revenue to reach $1.8bn. Of course Zoom’s growth has been hit by repeated security fears. Some companies have urged employees against using the product and experts have questioned the strength of the app’s encryption. The company was plagued by reports of “Zoombombing” whereby uninvited guests crashed meetings and in some cases broadcast hate-filled or pornographic content. Yuan introduced a range of measures to address the problem, including the introduction of ‘waiting rooms’, where hosts would approve guests before they entered, and automatically placing passwords on meetings. ‘Such an influx of users will always attract
attention from security researchers and malicious actors who are discovering vulnerabilities on high-traffic platforms, albeit for starkly different purposes,’ says Chris Hodson, chief information security officer at Tanium. Hodson says the company’s move to dramatically beef up security was ‘critical’ to protect Zoom’s future success. Competitors will look to latch onto Zoom’s security troubles as they bid to reclaim the market. Microsoft is arguably the best-placed to compete with its Teams offering, which comes bundled in if a company already uses Office365. The app can host chats with up to 250 people or present live to up to 10,000 people. It also allows for users to share invites and meeting recordings through Outlook. Seamless interaction in the Microsoft ‘ecosystem’ will form a big part of the lure from Zoom.