In 1997, Eric joined Webex as a founding engineer. Otherwise, I’m not going to stop.” He continued reapplying for two years until he was finally accepted on the ninth try. I’ll do all I can until you tell me that I can never come here anymore. The US customs misunderstood Eric as a part-time contractor because his business card listed him as a consultant. After that incident, the now-skeptical immigration services rejected his Visa 7 more times, but Eric did not give in. Let’s find out the exciting backstory behind what might look like an overnight success before we delve into Zoom’s’ Business Model.Ĭonvinced that the internet was the next big thing, Eric decided to migrate to the US from China in the mid-’90s. The first time he applied for a US Visa, his application was rejected.

There’s no denying that the coronavirus propelled Zoom’s growth in a way nobody could have predicted, not even Eric himself, but Zoom was a successful product even before the whole virus thing happened. When Eric Yuan, Zoom’s CEO, decided to go after the video conferencing market in 2011, the market was already flooded with incumbents like Microsoft-owned Skype, Google Hangouts & the then market leader Webex, owned by Cisco.Įric served as the VP of Engineering at Webex when he decided to venture out independently. So why did he quit Webex, start Zoom & how did he turn Zoom into a leading video conferencing software with almost 50% market share?

Zoom phone pricing