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CNN Business When you think of a social network, you probably imagine news feeds, birthday reminders and baby photos. But the social network of the moment -- the one that's currently getting more app downloads than either Snapchat or TikTok -- looks a little different: It's a videoconferencing service called Zoom ZM , where many peoples' work and social lives now unfold.
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As the coronavirus pandemic has forced millions around the world to stay in their homes, the 9-year-old platform has emerged as the go-to service for not only virtual meetings and classroom lessons but happy hours , costume parties, church services , brunches, book clubs and romantic dates.
Like Facebook FB and Twitter TWTR , it's also become a key part of internet culture: The Facebook Group " Zoom Memes for Self Quarantines ," with nearly , members, offers a steady stream of jokes, ranging from a video of a student pretending Zoom is glitchy to get out of a homework assignment to a professor starting a lesson with cameos from stuffed animals. Zoom's free version can support up to users at a time. From the start, Zoom aspired to stand out in a market of products that were probably more hated than loved.
In a letter to shareholders included with its paperwork for going public a year ago, founder and CEO Eric Yuan talked about "how unhappy" people were with the videoconference tools on the market. But that was before the pandemic. Now video conferencing tools have gone from the punchline of a dry office joke to a vital social lifeline -- and perhaps none more so than Zoom. Zoom's free version can host up video participants at once -- Microsoft MSFT -owned Skype's free model allows for 50 -- and features personalized tools, including the ability to pick from different backgrounds whether it be the Golden Gate Bridge option or a picture you upload , change the camera angles, hold encrypted private calls, send direct messages and record sessions.
Read More. In recent weeks, Zoom has emerged as the most downloaded app on the Apple App Store, repeatedly breaking its download records. On Monday March 23, Zoom was downloaded 2. Two months prior, the app had just under 56, global downloads in a day.
The company launched in when Yuan left Cisco as a founding engineer on its WebEx video platform, one of Zoom's rivals. In April , Zoom went public and fared better than splashier tech companies such as Lyft and Uber, which held their IPOs around the same time. Unlike Uber, Zoom is actually profitable. From the start of its life as a publicly traded company, investors seemed to buy into Yuan's vision, as laid out his letter to shareholders: "video is the future of communications.
Neighborhood social network Nextdoor is both a lifeline and a hub of anxiety. There are downsides, however, to such rapid growth and the added attention that comes with it. Like more traditional social networks, Zoom now faces concerns about privacy and online harassment. Already, the phrase " Zoombombing " has emerged for when bored, quarantined trolls and hackers overtake public video chats by displaying graphic content or racist comments to cause a stir.
Chipotle, for example, confirmed to CNN Business that during its new public video chat series, Chiptole Together, a Zoom participant broadcasted pornography to all attendees. The company has since switched platforms. The incident was first reported by the New York Times. At the same time, Zoom must work to keep its service up and running amid surging demand for online communication tools and social networks that has strained far bigger platforms , including Facebook FB and its corporate sibling Instagram.
To handle this surge, Zoom spokesperson Farshad Hashmatulla told CNN Business it relies on its data centers in 17 global locations, routing both audio and video traffic to these sites. He said the company's policy long before the health crisis has been to make sure it can support double its average daily peak of usage and have the ability to deploy tens of thousands of additional servers within hours if needed.
When Yuan, a son of mining engineers in China, left Cisco to launch a product that was easier to use and more customizable than competitors, another one of his key focuses was building a company culture around promoting "happiness.
Li was impressed with Yuan's vision to build a product around technical precision from the ground up. Dirty money: The case against using cash during the coronavirus outbreak. Zoom now appears to be expanding its footing across industries quickly as the coronavirus pandemic continues. For example, the company is offering its services to K schools for no charge in various countries.
It also waived its monthly charge to all users in China. Zoom is far from the only video chat app experiencing rapid growth.
Despite some technical bumps -- for example, Microsoft's chat and communications platform Teams experienced a major outage in Europe last week -- these key players have managed the growth remarkably well.
But it is Zoom's ability to meet the needs of people working remotely and serve as a fun tool for socializing that has heightened it to rockstar status. Eventually, analysts say it will need to add new features to encourage people to pay for the service. For now, companies are largely cautious to roll out new tools as their remote teams get comfortable at home and remain focused on making sure everything works.
How long has zoom app been around
With millions of people being forced to stay home to help stop the spread of COVID, many have found creative ways to virtually stay social through happy hours, trivia nights and birthday parties.
And Zoom , one of the dozens of video conferencing services, has risen to the top, thanks to intense separation measures and a profound resonance within this new social distancing culture. Daily downloads of the Zoom app have increased 30x year-over-year and the app has been the top free app for iPhones in the United States since March 18, according to Bernstein Research and Apptopia.
Zoom said daily users spiked to million in March, up from 10 million in December. But it hasn't been without scrutiny.
Privacy concerns have been rising around Zoom, including " Zoombombing ," where a malicious user will join a Zoom meeting and show explicit or disturbing images.
CEO Eric Yuan apologized on Thursday for the security lapses and outlined what the company is doing to fix those problems. Watch the video to learn how Zoom became the go-to platform, how it is handling the influx of users and whether the company's success can be sustained after offices open back up.
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