Can you talk us through the evolution of your platform?
Zoom was founded in 2011 as a video-only platform, and that was an outcome of the vision of our CEO, Eric Yuan, who at that time was working for one of the world’s leading UCaaS providers. He was frustrated that he couldn’t do what he believed we could do within the UCaaS market. So he left and with a $250,000 loan, set up his own business, which began with with Zoom video. And as we’ve gone on that journey from 2011 through to to the present day, that video-only model has turned into a platform. This meant adding other elements of UC requirements such as Zoom Phone, contact centre solutions and remote working functions. We brought it all together onto an end-to-end platform that allows users to operate from anywhere within any environment.
How different is that from Zoom One you have recently launched?
As we went on that journey, obviously, these were individual products that were coming out. For example, you could buy Zoom Video, Zoom Chat or our conferences separately. Zoom One is now giving customers and partners an opportunity to take everything from chat, phone, meetings and more in a single platform.
Can you tell us about your technology partnerships?
We have various disciplines within the business and technology partnerships with Poly, DTEN, Logitech, etc. All these partners are integrated within the Zoom platform. From a contact centre perspective, we have an alliance with Genesys. So the Zoom platform has strengths within certain parts of the market, but at the same time, we also understand we want to provide our customers with choice. So integration for us has been key, and one of the significant growth areas of our business is ISVs, giving organisations the ability to integrate within Zoom platform through open APIs.
Zoom has recently launched Zoom Apps SDK. Will this enable developers to enrich the app experience?
It is an exciting development, and the Zoom Apps SDK provides developers with the resources and support infrastructure. There is so much innovation within our partner ecosystem in the Middle East region. We are equipping partners with the ability to white-label different parts of Zoom and deliver them to their customers. There is so much growth in the UCaaS market, and those who can innovate around these technologies will continue to grow the fastest.
Zoom Phone is a VoIP system, which is regulated in this market. Isn’t that a challenge?
Yes, it can be a challenge. Every country has different requirements when it comes to operating with carriers. So today, what we are offering within the MENA market is what we call BYOC or bring your own carrier model. So that means every single client with existing relationship with a carrier can continue with that relationship but use Zoom Phone as the softphone. As we move to later this year, we’ll introduce what we call Zoom Native. In fact, we have a number of partners in the region that are currently going through the certifications of that and the compliancy. And at that point, you will be able to provide your own numbers within the model.
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