Zoom aims to expand presence in Korea with video chat app

By Baek Byung-yeul

U.S.-based tech company Zoom Video Communications has quickly grown into a major player as a video conferencing platform after social distancing practices and work-from-home became the new normal following the COVID-19 pandemic.

As the company's video conferencing app Zoom enables groups of people to engage in video chatting with each other quickly, efficiently and conveniently, people are using the word “Zoom” as an alternate for “video conferencing.”

After the pandemic outbreak the number of daily meeting participants (users) hit 300 million in April, skyrocketing from 10 million in December 2019.

Abe Smith, head of the International Division at Zoom Video Communications, said the American company is aiming to expand its presence in Korea by promoting the use of its video conferencing platform in sectors such as telemedicine.

“In Korea, we see consistency of use where companies rely on the service for business continuity, students and teachers utilize Zoom for maintaining their curriculum including Seoul National University, and consumers utilize the platform for social connections,” Smith told The Korea Times in an email interview.

Smith said Zoom will be able to contribute to the viral spread of new behavior patterns in the post-COVID-19 era as the video conferencing platform is now being used for telemedicine services.

“A large number of global institutions, including healthcare organizations and telemedicine practices, have done exhaustive security reviews of our user, network and datacenter layers, confidently selecting Zoom for complete deployment,” he said.

In Korea, telemedicine is still not active, but the government is increasingly open to its use after the virus pandemic. “We offer specialized account configurations for Zoom healthcare customer accounts that are different from the generally available Zoom commercial accounts, ensuring Zoom is fully compliant with regulations,” the Smith said.

He didn't breakdown use or user statistics by country, but the company has been witnessing increasing popularity in Korea as well as the Asia-Pacific region overall.

“Per company policy, Zoom doesn't breakdown usage or user statistics by country. That said, Zoom does break down revenue by region. Per Zoom's first quarter fiscal year 2021 earnings report, the Asia-Pacific region made up 9.5 percent of revenue, compared to 8.6 percent in the first quarter fiscal year 2020,” he said.

'Privacy and security are our top priority'

Despite the video conferencing app enjoying unprecedented popularity across the world, questions have been raised about privacy and cybersecurity.

In April, researchers from the University of Toronto found that Zoom was using a non-standard type of encryption and transmitting information through China, warning the video conferencing platform was not at the appropriate security level for government use.

In reaction to this concern, Smith said Zoom “takes user privacy, security and trust extremely seriously.”

“A large number of global institutions ranging from the world's largest financial services companies and telecommunications providers, to non-governmental organizations and government agencies continue to use Zoom for most or all of their unified communications needs,” he said.

After the issue surfaced, Zoom founder Eric Yuan announced a 90-day freeze on releasing new features, to focus on safety and privacy. He added the company would conduct a review with independent experts to ensure the security of all of Zoom's new consumers.

After cybersecurity issues on the video conferencing app arose, Taiwan decided to ban Zoom from government use. Also and Elon Musk's rocket company SpaceX have banned the use of Zoom citing security concerns.

The latest concern on Zoom's privacy issues came last week when the company suspended the account of a group of Chinese activists residing in the U.S. after they held a video conference to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.

The Humanitarian China group said its account was closed days after the event, which was attended by some 250 people, but Zoom said it had to shut the account to comply with “local laws.”

When asked whether Zoom gives access to the specific account of a Zoom user following a government request, Smith answered Zoom “does not provide the government direct and unrestricted access to our users' data, and we do not provide the government with our encryption keys.”

“Zoom only responds to valid law enforcement requests,” he said. “If we receive a request for information, our policy is to comply only if the request follows a valid legal process and there is proper jurisdiction.”

He emphasized that Zoom is a safe platform and free from eavesdropping. “Zoom does not eavesdrop on users' meetings. We also do not let law enforcement listen into meetings. Zoom does not proactively monitor meeting content and we do not have backdoors where anyone ― including employees ― can enter meetings without being visible to others via the meeting participants list,” he said.