India is one of the fastest growing markets in APAC biz: Zoom

India is one of the fastest growing countries within Zoom Video Communications’ business in the APAC region because more and more businesses are integrating video and collaboration platforms into their workflow, according to General Manager & Head (India & SAARC) Sameer Raje.

The Nasdaq-listed video communications company, which reported its quarterly and full year result on February 28, has seen business slowing globally as people are returning to offices and cutting back on their Zoom usage with the pandemic waning.  

Its revenue for the full year of 2021 jumped 55 per cent to $4.099 billion. Its quarterly revenue for November-January 2022 went up 21 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to around a $1.071 billion, a decrease from the 35 per cent it grew in the previous quarter and only a fraction of the 369 per cent it grew during November 2020-January 2021. Zoom follows a February to January fiscal year.

But the APAC region’s growth has been higher than the company’s global growth numbers, although it is on a much lower base. Its fourth quarter revenue from APAC was $155 million, up 31.4 per cent. APAC, which contributes to 14.4 per cent of overall revenues, includes Japan – one of the largest contributors to Zoom’s revenues in the region.  

“Whether it’s video KYC or any kind of business which has a workflow, people are looking at integrating video as a collaboration platform. That’s why India continues to grow at a strong pace month-on-month,” he told Business Today. Be it by including a tab on a website which visitors can click to start a video meeting or signing test documents in online tutoring, Indian businesses are using Zoom in innovative ways, he added.

At an overall level, the company has issued a 20 per cent revenue growth outlook for its enterprise or corporate businesses, whereas it expects flat growth for its online business which includes customers many of whom use the service for free.

“In India, we are seeing the exact same trend where enterprises are adopting Zoom big time,” said Raje, adding that tele-medicine & pharmaceuticals, auto manufacturing and edtech are adopting Zoom for real-time applications.  

This comes as the California-headquartered firm faces the tough challenge of finding newer ways to stay relevant beyond the pandemic, especially with rivals Microsoft Teams and Cisco’s Webex also offering similar services.

“We are working very hard to transition from a meeting company to a platform company,” CEO Eric Yuan had said in response to a similar question posed by an analyst in the recent earnings call.

The global health crisis practically made the company a household name as several millions around the globe were forced to turn to Zoom to continue working, studying and connecting with family and friends remotely. But now with the pandemic receding in many parts of the world, including India, it needs to be seen how well Zoom navigates through this changing period.