Zoom Opens Technology Centre in Bengaluru, Promises to Hire Key Talent from India

Zoom claims that from January to April this year, it saw a whopping 6,700 percent growth in free user signups in the country.

By Jagmeet Singh | Updated: 21 July 2020 12:39 IST

Zoom Opens Technology Centre in Bengaluru, Promises to Hire Key Talent from India

Zoom emphasises how important is India for the company

Highlights

Zoom app’s paid users in India have grown by four times
The company already has its India office in Mumbai
Zoom says it offers free services to many educational institutes in India

Zoom on Tuesday announced the launch of its technology centre in Bengaluru. The San Jose, California-based company, which is known for the video conferencing app Zoom, also promised to hire key talent from India over the next few years. Zoom has lately faced some criticism in India over security issues. Also, since Zoom founder and CEO Eric Yuan is a Chinese-American who was born in China, the company is also often considered as a Chinese entity and is impacted anti-China sentiment prevalent in the country right now.

While making the new announcement, Zoom said that from January to April, it saw a whopping 6,700 percent growth in free user signups in the country. Paid userbase of the Zoom app in India is also claimed to have grown by at least four times in the last three to four months owing to the coronavirus pandemic.

Zoom's Head of International Abe Smith, COO Aparna Bawa, Product and Engineering President Velchamy Sankarlingam, and India Head Sameer Raje hosted a briefing on Tuesday to announce the new technology centre. All four executives began the virtual conversation by highlighting their connection with India — a move to emphasise how important is the India market for the company.

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“Zoom has been adopted by Indian people wholeheartedly,” Bawa told the reporters while addressing a briefing.

The technology centre in Bengaluru is touted to be a supplement for Zoom's existing R&D centres and support its engineering team based at its headquarters in San Jose. It will start recruiting DevOps engineers, IT, security, and business operations headcount that all will work from home until the pandemic-related remote work has subsidised, the company said.

“We are proud to provide our services for free to over 2,300 educational institutions in India during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Yuan said in a prepared statement.

Zoom already has its India office in Mumbai and two data centres in Mumbai and Hyderabad to support its Indian userbase.

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