Zoom's user growth is surging – but trust in its security is receding
As the COVID-19 crisis continues to necessitate remote work, teleconferencing company Zoom has become one of the outbreak's few beneficiaries, enjoying a surge in user growth. However, concerns over the company's privacy policies are now under a microscope. The Final Round panel discusses the latest.
Video Transcript
JEN ROGERS: Now we are all on Zoom. Zoom is a verb. We have Zoom cocktail parties constantly. And apparently, there's 200 million people on Zoom. Before we get to some of the privacy issues and the Zoom bombing and all of that, Myles, this number of 200 million people-- is Zoom now in a category all on its own?
MYLES UDLAND: I mean, you think you gotta say yes, right? We've talked so much in the last few years about this little pet theory of when you become a verb, when your company's name is a verb, you win. It's over. Netflix and chill. That's it. We are done. Netflix is the winner in the category.
You know, I saw a stat going around about, before the coronavirus outbreak, it was something like Skype had maybe 30, 35 million users, and Zoom had 20, 25. And now Skype has, like, 45, and Zoom has 200 million. So clearly, there's been a lot of competitive ground ceded to Zoom by some other companies in the space, but yeah.
Look, I think the zeitgeist is always going to be this factor a company can't account for. But if you catch it, if you ride that wave, if you become something bigger than yourself-- which I think is sort of what we're talking about with Zoom here. You know, I don't-- I don't think anyone who works at Zoom said, yeah, we're to build this video conferencing software. Then we're going to wait for a pandemic, and then we're going to blow up. And certainly, everyone who works there would rather us not be sheltering in place around the globe right now, but they're the clear beneficiary.
And I think their statement today that they're going to come out and freeze product development and just work on security for 90 days also shows that they're serious about the very fair-- And they're basically legitimizing the criticisms that have been raised against them, that their security is not where it needs to be given the volume of calls they're handling and given that these calls, as we all know here, right? We're bringing this camera into our home. I would prefer that this system not be hacked.
JEN ROGERS: Can anybody grow this quickly without issues and problems? Dan Roberts, we're starting to get lots of reports about-- And look, if you-- if you grow this quickly, of course there's going to be growing pains. But the privacy issues, the consumer trying to call and get anybody on the phone, the wait times-- I mean, I guess on some level, some of it's to be expected-- the privacy part less so, right? Is that the real possible headwind for them?
MYLES UDLAND: We lost Dan.
JEN ROGERS: Is Dan there? Did I lose Dan Roberts?
MYLES UDLAND: No, I saw in the-- I saw in the meeting that he left, so--
JEN ROGERS: Just right then?
MYLES UDLAND: Just right then. Just right then.
JEN ROGERS: That's so sad. Well--
MYLES UDLAND: Jen, this is a-- this is a new technology we're all working through. So it happens.
JEN ROGERS: Sure. I-- I have an opinion about this.
MYLES UDLAND: [INAUDIBLE]. Go ahead.
JEN ROGERS: [INAUDIBLE]. No, I see Jared Blikre also unmuted. I don't know how many times Jared's jumping in Zoom or not. But I do think that the privacy issues here for everybody that in virtual learning, which I don't think either of you guys are dealing with, but maybe-- I don't know. Like, in your spare time, you're taking Spanish classes and guitar classes to make your sheltering in place better.
But as somebody that's virtual learning three different people here, I'm Zooming, and you leave a kid now with a Zoom account by themselves-- the privacy issues, I see those as really red flags here that have to be dealt with.
JARED BLIKRE: Yeah, I'm going to jump in here. I think that is a huge red flag for me. One of the-- In fact, the only reason I currently use the Facebook product which is WhatsApp is because of the end-to-end user encryption.
You take that away, and if somebody can hack your system or if there is a back door for the government to get in, anything like that, why use the product? And especially if you're a business, you can't afford to have your corporate secrets be hacked or be able to be leaked. So I think this is a-- a bigger issue than some people are making out of it today, Jen.
JEN ROGERS: The number's staggering, though, any way you slice it. I think that 200 million number is quite big. Is it a $42 billion-- is this still a market-cap company, though, that deserves $40 billion? I don't know. That's where I'm going to leave it. I'm going to have the last word. I think that's the big question.
