During this year 2020 as the Corona pandemic continued to spread, the popularity of video calling apps increased dramatically, most notably: the "Zoom" app, which has a very high usage rate, from 10 million daily users in December 2019 to more than 300 million people participating in meetings via the app daily, and 2 trillion minutes of video calls between January and April, and the phrase "Let's Zoom" became known worldwide.
How did the app make such a huge leap in such a short period of time, overcome the many security problems that have emerged in it, and, more importantly, how did it bring down Skype, one of the most popular video calling apps of the past 17 years, from the top?
Since its emergence eight years ago, Zoom has been known as a video call app that corporate employees use only for remote meetings, but with the spread of the Corona pandemic, the app has become more widely used, from governments to culinary enthusiasts as well as to hosting birthdays.
The app has already found fierce competition from the applications of the most famous technology companies, such as Apple, Google, Microsoft and Facebook, but the app has nevertheless climbed to the top quickly, and this is due to one feature – it must be available in all products without exception – namely: accessibility.
Zoom allows users to connect and hold conferences without having to download an app, and follow a lot of steps to create an account as well, unlike other applications, which provided this feature after the great success of zoom and its huge spread. Zoom also initially benefited from a free version that offers powerful features.
Zoom has thus benefited from its ease of use, particularly targeting users who had never used a video call app before the Corona pandemic, but were forced to close down to find an app that provides them with an easy way to communicate with loved ones via video.
Founder knows exactly what he wants:
The power behind making Zoom easy to use came from Eric Yuan, founder and CEO of Zoom, a former Webex employee who has worked on web conferencing software since arriving in the United States in 1997 from China, and left the business after failing to convince Webex officials that speed, ease of use and support for mobile devices are the key elements that need to be emphasized.
Eric Yuan has therefore benefited from his experience in developing the Zoom app to be a competitor to many applications, such as Skype, which is quite the opposite, as its use requires creating an account first, but it was not a priority for many people who simply try to communicate immediately after the video calls app was opened.
But ease of use soon became a double-edged sword, with attacks linked to this feature known as zoom-bombing, and this became a concern for many, so much so that the UK's National Crime Agency and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation had to issue warnings and tips on how to keep calls safe.
As a result, the app introduced new features to reduce these attacks, such as allowing account owners and administrators to disable the personal meeting code, and adding an additional layer of security to the app to repel attackers and inquisitive people.
The app also suffered another security scandal, when it was found that the app did not provide a feature (end-to-end encryption), in addition to which the app was severely attacked after it closed the account of a civilian activist – later recalculated – at the request of the Chinese government.
What about the future of Zoom after the Corona pandemic receded?
"The adoption of a remote business orientation has led companies to use apps like Zoom to make video calls easily, and I feel that this trend will continue in 2021 and beyond," says Prithwiraj Choudhury, associate professor at Harvard Business School.
"The popularity of video calling apps in the post-pandemic world may be slightly diminished, as they will continue to be used in offices for many benefits."
What about the competitors?
Zoom has undoubtedly been a huge success this year, making many companies try hard to compete, including Microsoft, which introduced a consumer-oriented version of the "Teams" app as part of a larger campaign to make the app an essential tool for communication between friends and family as well as businesses.
Teams has already seen a spectacular growth in recent times, from 44 million daily users in March to 115 million active users in October 2020, with the company also plans to stop the release of Skype for Business in 2021 to make room for teams to compete seriously in the future.
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