What Does Zoom (ZM) Do?

Zoom Video Communications is a cloud-based communications and collaboration software company founded in 2011 by Eric Yuan, a former Cisco WebEx employee, and headquartered in San Jose, California. Listed on Nasdaq in 2019, Zoom expanded its user base nearly 30-fold during the 2020 pandemic, rapidly becoming a brand whose name turned into a verb — "to Zoom."

What Is It and How Did It Come About?

Eric Yuan questioned why video conferencing was so complicated and unreliable while working at WebEx. When he founded Zoom in 2011, he designed it as a solution that was as simple as possible and could work with low bandwidth. The company adopted a freemium model targeting enterprise customers in 2013 and achieved an above-expectation valuation in its 2019 IPO.

Following the pandemic, some of that user base shifted to Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and Cisco Webex. However, Zoom has maintained a strong position, particularly among small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and the education sector.

What Does It Do?

Zoom's product portfolio spans multiple collaboration and communications tools:

Zoom's product ecosystem — collaboration layers from Meetings to Contact Center, AI Companion, and Zoom Phone

Why Does It Matter?

• Pandemic legacy: Before 2020, Zoom was largely an enterprise tool; the pandemic transformed it into a consumer brand. This brand recognition is a long-term asset.
• Freemium model: Using personal users as a channel for enterprise sales (PLG — Product-Led Growth) is one of Zoom's core growth engines.
• AI transformation: Zoom AI Companion is attempting to position the company in the AI-powered meeting assistant segment against competing Teams and Meet products.
• UCaaS market: The Unified Communications-as-a-Service (UCaaS) market is growing; Zoom aims to be one of the key players in this segment.

How is ZM traded?

The underlying (ZM) trades on its own market during that market's session hours.

ZM price and technical analysis →

Risks

• Large competitors: Microsoft Teams (free with Office 365), Google Meet, and Cisco Webex hold competitive integration advantages in the enterprise segment.
• Post-pandemic slowdown: User growth is running well below pandemic-era levels; if the company fails to recapture growth momentum, revenue pressure may continue.
• Pricing pressure: Competitors' free or bundled offerings constrain Zoom's ability to charge per unit.
• Tokenized instrument risk: Given the high beta of technology shares, ZM may also experience deep volatility in the perpetual format on a crypto exchange.

COINOTAG Perspective

Zoom is one of the most striking examples of the transition from "pandemic winner to maturing software company." ZM shares, which lost approximately 85% of their value from their 2021 peak, spent the 2023–2025 period searching for stability. The ability of new products such as AI Companion and Contact Center to achieve cross-sell within the existing enterprise customer base will be the most critical factor defining Zoom's next growth cycle. The long-term durability of remote and hybrid work models continues to be Zoom's strongest structural tailwind.