In the video conferencing service Zoom, the popularity in the corona crisis provides a steep growth of business. Sales and profits soar in first quarter ended April. And Zoom expects a lasting plus: For the full fiscal year, the U.S. company expects to triple its earnings.
Zoom was originally intended for businesses, but in the Corona crisis not only home office use increased, but also use by private individuals, as well as for sports classes, religious services or education. There are now 300 million video conference participants per day, up from 10 million in December.
Significant gain
Last quarter, revenue rose year-over-year from $122 million to $328 million, Zoom reported after the U.S. stock market closed on Tuesday. The bottom line was around $27 million in profit – after only around 200.000 dollars a year earlier. For the fiscal year ending January 2021, Zoom now expects revenues of up to $1.8 billion. Last year, revenues were up 88 percent to $622 million – and just three months ago, Zoom itself was forecasting a good $900 million for the current year.
Business growth has not been self-evident despite explosive growth in usage. Because Zoom had lifted various restrictions on the free use of the service during the Corona crisis. As a result, the company made no money with many new users – while infrastructure costs increased. Just three months ago, the company itself warned that it was unclear whether it would profit from the Corona boom in the long term. However, there has also been significant growth in the number of paying customers in the company’s business in recent months.