Zoom Expects Post-Pandemic Business Will Remain Brisk 

Wall Street is predicting that as vaccines are more widely distributed, the need for remote business tools like Zoom will plummet. Zoom, however, begs to differ and is forecasting that demand will remain brisk post-pandemic, The Financial Times (FT) wrote on Tuesday (March 2).

Zoom, a video conferencing startup that exploded when the pandemic took hold in March 2020, recorded $883 million in revenue the fourth-quarter ending in January. The same period last year saw revenue of $188 million, per FT.

The Silicon Valley startup was founded in 2011 and went public in 2019. It now serves 467,100 customers with more than 10 employees, five times as many companies of that size as before the pandemic. 

Zoom projects revenues for the next fiscal year will be around $3.76 billion to $3.78 billion, compared to Wall Street projections of about $3.5 billion, the company told FT.

Eric Yuan, founder and chief executive officer, said Zoom has been diversifying and is moving toward becoming a platform company rather than just remaining a “killer app,” he told Wall Street analysts in a call, per FT. 

Kelly Steckelberg, chief financial officer, told FT that it is hard to forecast what its customer base will be as people start returning to worksites, but the company expects use throughout 2021 to remain the same.

Zoom’s fourth-quarter results — the last time a quarter will compare to pre-pandemic business — was the third quarter in a row that posted growth of more than 300 percent on an on-year basis, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

Zoom’s high-tech video conferencing software became a household name when the pandemic took hold in March 2020. The tool made it possible for businesses and educational institutions to connect and conduct daily meetings and lessons. It was also used for the court system.