Zoom Earnings Soar As Video Meets Become Norm

Zoom on Tuesday reported that its earnings soared as its video-meeting service became a popular way to work or socialise while hunkered down due to the pandemic.

Zoom said it made a profit of US$27 million on revenue that leapt 169 percent to slightly more than US$328 million in the first three months of this year.

In the first quarter last year, Zoom reported zero dollars per share in net income for stockholders.

"The Covid-19 crisis has driven higher demand for distributed, face-to-face interactions and collaboration using Zoom," founder and chief executive Eric Yuan said in a release.

"Use cases have grown rapidly as people integrated Zoom into their work, learning, and personal lives."

Zoom shares that ended the formal trading day up nearly two percent, topping US$200, climbed another three percent in after-market trades.

The quarter ended with Zoom having approximately 265,400 paying customers with at least 10 employees each in an increase of 354 percent from the first quarter in 2019, according to the company based in the Silicon Valley city of San Jose.

The earnings come with Zoom under pressure to deal with security and privacy as the platform faces scrutiny from rising usage.

New York state's top prosecutor last month announced that Zoom would improve security measures, after flaws were detected as the video conferencing platform soared in popularity amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The agreement ended an investigation launched in March by New York Attorney General Letitia James into vulnerabilities in the company's software.

Zoom recently launched a philanthropic foundation with initial grants to San Jose Digital Inclusion Fund , Destination Home, the CDC Foundation , the World Health Organization and the CDE Foundation. (AFP)