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Tag: Eric Yuan

  • Zoom’s Five9 Purchase Under National Security Review

    Zoom’s Five9 Purchase Under National Security Review

    Zoom’s purchase of Five9, a leading intelligent cloud contact center provider, is undergoing a US national security review.

    Zoom announced in July that it was purchasing Five9. Zoom has its roots in the enterprise market, before becoming a household name as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Looking to the post-pandemic market, Zoom is gearing up for a renewed focus on the enterprise market, making Five9’s contact center solution a natural fit.

    The deal has come under US national security scrutiny as a result of Zoom’s perceived ties to China. The company’s CEO, Eric Yuan, was born in China despite being a US citizen. The company courted controversy in the early days of the pandemic by routing data through servers in China, including data for calls originating in North America. As a result of the backlash, the company added the ability for paid customers to choose which region their data flows through.

    These concerns, however, were enough to spark additional scrutiny, especially since Five9 is a California-based telecommunications company. The Federal Communications Commission is an interagency committee tasked with protecting US telecommunications, and the DOJ requested it review the deal “to determine whether this application poses a risk to the national security or law enforcement interests of the United States.”

    Despite the setback, Zoom told The Hill it still expects the deal to close in the first half of 2022.

    “The Five9 acquisition is subject to certain telecom regulatory approvals,” the company told The Hill. “We have made filings with the various applicable regulatory agencies, and these approval processes are proceeding as expected.”

    “We continue to anticipate receiving the required regulatory approvals to close the transaction in the first half of 2022,” the spokesperson continued.

  • The Case For Paid Zoom Plans: Free Plans Don’t Have End-to-End Encryption

    The Case For Paid Zoom Plans: Free Plans Don’t Have End-to-End Encryption

    Following Zoom’s addition of end-to-end encryption, the company’s CEO made it clear that only paying customers benefit from it.

    Zoom has become one of the dominant video communication platforms during the coronavirus pandemic, going from 10 million daily users to well over 200 million, and hitting 300 million at times. In spite of its dominance, Zoom has faced significant criticism for weak security. The company was forced to put a 90-day moratorium on new features, as it pivoted to security fixes.

    One of the biggest criticisms was the type of encryption Zoom used, with its marketing giving the impression it was end-to-end when, in fact, it was not. Zoom quickly moved to address the issue and offer true end-to-end encryption.

    In spite of that, not everyone will benefit from the upgrade. According to Bloomberg, in a call with analysts, CEO Eric Yuan indicated free users are out in the cold.

    “Free users for sure we don’t want to give that because we also want to work together with FBI, with local law enforcement in case some people use Zoom for a bad purpose,” said Yuan.

    The move is already receiving criticism and it will be interesting to see if Zoom sticks to its guns or upgrades free users as well.

  • Zoom Pivots to Security Amid Ongoing Criticism

    Zoom Pivots to Security Amid Ongoing Criticism

    Zoom is taking drastic measures to improve its security and privacy amid criticism and scrutiny as it serves hundreds of millions of users.

    As the pandemic sweeps the globe, individuals, corporations and organizations of all types are making drastic changes to their daily workflows and routines. Zoom has become an integral part of those routines, and hundreds of millions of users have begun to rely on the platform for school, work and socializing.

    Unfortunately for the company, the increased usage has also brought increased scrutiny, especially in the realm of privacy and security. The company has been called to task for not using end-to-end encryption, as its marketing claims; for leaking email addresses; for sending data to Facebook without informing users, before finally removing the offending SDK; and for a rash of Zoom-bombing incidents where outside individuals gain access to a Zoom meeting and make a nuisance of themselves.

    In view of these challenges, Zoom is taking drastic action to beef up its security and privacy. In a blog post on the company’s site, founder and CEO Eric Yuan said the company is enacting a freeze for 90 days in order to shift all “engineering resources to focus on our biggest trust, safety, and privacy issues.”

    The company also plans to conduct a comprehensive review with third-party experts and release a transparency report. It will also enhance its bug bounty program, and engage in a number of white box penetration tests. Zoom has also improved its privacy policy, apologized for not handling its encryption issues clearly and tried to help individuals address Zoom-bombing.

    In short, the company is pulling out all the stops in an effort to improve its privacy and security, no small task given how quickly the platform has grown.

    “To put this growth in context, as of the end of December last year, the maximum number of daily meeting participants, both free and paid, conducted on Zoom was approximately 10 million,” writes Yuan. “In March this year, we reached more than 200 million daily meeting participants, both free and paid.”

    As we said in a previous article, “the increased scrutiny of Zoom is a good reminder to companies that privacy and security should never be an afterthought. Instead, they should be a core feature, built in to an app or service from day one.”

    That statement remains true—security and privacy should never be an afterthought. At the same time, it’s time to give credit where credit is due: Zoom is stepping up to the plate and doing everything possible to provide its users with the privacy and security they expect and deserve.

  • Zoom CEO: If We Cannot Make the Customer Happy, Nothing Will Matter

    Zoom CEO: If We Cannot Make the Customer Happy, Nothing Will Matter

    Zoom Founder and CEO Eric Yuan says that the number one most important thing for a business is to make the customer happy. He says it really comes down to these three areas of focus; Product, Process, and People.

    Eric Yuan, Founder, and CEO of Zoom, recently sat down with industry analyst Michael Krigsman, who conducted another fascinating interview for his CXOTALK video interview platform:

    If We Can’t Make the Customer Happy, Nothing Will Matter

    I think, every day as a CEO who manages a company, I have so many things to work on but, ultimately, I’ve got to understand what’s the number one important thing as a business, right?

    If we cannot make the customer happy, nothing will matter. That’s why this is our number one priority. If a customer is happy, everything else will be easier. Customers will like to talk with us, share our stories with others and, essentially, will help us to further improve our product experience and also make our business better.

    Look at Everything From a Customer Perspective

    You’ve got to look at everything from a customer perspective. If you truly care about them, you are not only going to look at it from your perspective. When you build a product, you will say, “Hey, will this product, will this feature, deliver happiness or add value to a customer or not?”

    Anything you do, look at it from a customer perspective. Then, actually, the customers, they will feel more like a part of your business. They’re happy to grow your business.

    Focus on Product, Process, and People

    Ultimately, it’s three things. When we talk about happiness, first of all, your product has got to work, right? Every time a customer is using Zoom, they really like it. That’s the number one thing; your product has got to work. Every time after the meeting is over, customers say, “Yes, this experience is great.” They enjoy using your product.

    The second thing is your process. When you do business with customers, you’ve got to make sure your process is very simple but very easy.

    The third thing is about the people. Meaning, because not only do those customers use your product but, also, we want to make sure every interaction between Zoom employees and the customers  — say like support, a customer success manager, engineers, our product managers — every interaction between our company and the customers, they enjoy it. Process, people, and the product, from all those three aspects, we make sure the customer is happy.

    Watch the full 44-minute interview below or read the full transcript at CXOTALK: