Zoom, the popular video-conferencing app that’s come under intense scrutiny recently over privacy and security issues, has announced the opening of a technology center in India. The facility, which is in Bengaluru, Karnataka, is in addition to the company’s existing India office in Mumbai. Zoom also operates two data centers in Mumbai and Hyderabad. The company also outlined plans to expand its workforce in India and hire key talent in the country going forward.
The announcement was made via a teleconference on Tuesday. The four Zoom executives who made the announcement include the company’s International Head, Abe Smith, COO Aparna Bawa, Product and Engineering President Velchamy Sankarlingam and India Head, Sameer Raje. According to Bawa, “Zoom has been adopted by Indian people wholeheartedly”.
The technology center in Bengaluru is said to be a supplement for Zoom’s existing global R&D centers. The work done at this facility would support the company’s engineering team based at its San Jose headquarters. The company says it will soon start recruiting DevOps engineers, IT, security and business operations personnel for the facility. All employees will work from home as long as the pandemic situation continues to prevail.
Zoom’s founder, Eric Yuan, didn’t attend the meeting himself. However, in a prepared statement, said that the company is committed to India. “We are proud to provide our services for free to over 2,300 educational institutions in India during the COVID-19 pandemic”, he said. The company also announced that Zoom saw a massive 6,700% growth in free signups between January and April. Paid subscriptions have also reportedly increased at least four-fold during the pandemic.
