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Zoom’s Eric Yuan, the CEO Who Made Videoconferencing Bearable

The company’s stock price has nearly doubled since its April IPO.

Zoom’s Eric Yuan, the CEO Who Made Videoconferencing Bearable
Eric Yuan, CEO of Zoom Video Communications Inc. (Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg Businessweek) -- Lots of people use Skype or FaceTime to stay in touch with friends and family, but videoconference calling at work can be maddening. Companies that use Zoom, however, such as Uber Technologies Inc. and customer service software business Zendesk Inc., rave about how seamlessly it interacts with other professional software. (Yuan worked for years at Cisco Systems Inc., which makes Webex, a widely used corporate videoconference system.) Zoom shares jumped 72% on their first day of trading, and there’s been little letup. The enthusiasm shows that even in an era of big-dreaming unicorn startups like Uber, Airbnb, and SpaceX, investors will embrace a company that’s growing fast, turning a profit, managed by grown-ups, and eschewing futuristic markets such as driverless cars and internet-ferrying satellites.

Zoom’s Eric Yuan, the CEO Who Made Videoconferencing Bearable

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Bret Begun at bbegun@bloomberg.net, Max Chafkin

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