A Year Later: Reflecting and Looking Ahead

I’ve recently spent time reflecting on what the last year has been like — the challenges, the opportunities, and the experiences of our employees and customers.

It’s been more than a year since I have been in the same room as my fellow Zoomies. On March 3, 2020, we sent our employees to work from home for what we thought would be a few weeks. No one could have imagined what the next year would bring. At that time, we had 2,500 Zoomies, and today we have more than 4,400 global employees. 

So many of our employees have never met each other in person or stepped foot in a Zoom office. We’ve been lucky that our platform has allowed us to stay connected and collaborate throughout the year, and that our Zoom culture has remained core to who we are as we’ve grown. 

Across the globe, we have all been trying to navigate our new reality. Some of the biggest changes have been to our day-to-day lives — how we connect, communicate, learn, and do business — all under the tremendous weight that is living during a pandemic.

Over the past year, educators have had to reimagine student engagement and students have had to adjust to learning from home. Schools, districts, and institutions are in the process of navigating a safe return to the classroom, many in a hybrid learning environment.

About this time last year, we made the decision to offer Zoom for free to K-12, primary, and secondary schools globally. More than 125,000 school domains in 25 countries have taken us up on our offer and are using Zoom to keep education going. 

In December 2019, we had a peak of 10 million daily meeting participants. By March 2020, we had grown to an average of 200 million daily meeting participants, and by April 2020, we were averaging 300 million daily meeting participants — a 30x growth in three months. We continue to see these elevated meeting participants to this day. 

Those early days were hard and, if I’m being honest, there were a lot of sleepless nights. Looking back, I am proud of the way my team and my fellow Zoomies at every level of the company stepped up to the challenge and took action. We’ve continued to innovate and create a platform that is easy to use, secure, and trusted, not just by enterprises, but by teachers, students, doctors, patients, government agencies, small-business owners, families, and friends. In the past year we’ve introduced end-to-end encryption, customized data routing controls, and a myriad of other features designed to keep our users secure and productive.

When I founded Zoom nearly 10 years ago, my vision was simple: to create a frictionless video communications platform that would bring teams together. I never imagined the place Zoom would have in today’s world.  

As a company, we’ve been propelled by circumstances that don't come around often. We’ll continue to innovate and build the video communications platform of choice for so many people around the world. And we’ll do it with our customers and our commitment to delivering happiness in mind. 

In what has been a year like no other, I'm inspired by all the ways people around the world came together in the face of immense challenges. You found ways to stay connected, to shift and innovate and pivot your businesses, schools, and healthcare, to keep building forward.

I am incredibly grateful and proud that we have been such an integral part of the last year. Most importantly, I am thankful for the Zoomies who have worked so hard, and for our beloved customers. Thank you for trusting and choosing Zoom as your vital communications platform to continue your important work and stay connected to your communities and colleagues.