Zoom Video Communications, the popular conferencing app facing scrutiny over whether it transmits data to China, has opened a data centre in Singapore, diversifying its network and expanding into South-east Asia for the first time.
SINGAPORE: Zoom Video Communications has opened a new data centre in Singapore, its first in Southeast Asia, it said on Tuesday (Aug 18).Use of Zoom’s video conferencing services has surged as huge numbers of people across the world work from home because of COVID-19 curbs, but the company has also come under fire over privacy and security issues.
HIRING OF SINGAPORE EMPLOYEES
The Singapore data centre, through which the company’s users in Southeast Asia can connect, brings its total to 18 sites globally.
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The company also plans to hire more Singapore employees, said Abe Smith, head of international at Zoom.
In response to CNA’s queries, a spokesperson said Zoom was currently unable to provide an exact figure for its hiring plans in Singapore but that the company is “impressed with the talent and skills available locally”.
The company’s current hiring priorities include positions in enterprise, financial services, public sector, major accounts, sales, engineering, customer success, tax, legal, human resources and professional services, said the spokesperson.
“Zoom is constantly striving to bring better services and experiences to our paid and free users, and they are keen to ensure that the Singapore office brings together a diverse and talented team, who are savvy enough to navigate the diverse Southeast Asian region,” said the spokesperson.
SURGE IN NUMBER OF USERS
Smith said there had been a 65-fold increase in users of its free services in Singapore, with a tripling of paying customers, since January. Since March, 400 schools islandwide have been using the platform.
Singapore briefly suspended the use of Zoom by teachers in April after “very serious incidents” in the first week of coronavirus lockdown, including an incident that involved obscene images appearing on screens during a geography lesson.
Security researchers this year discovered that Zoom rerouted some calls through its servers in China, even if those calls were placed outside China.
The company had said that this took place in “extremely limited circumstances” and it had taken its mainland China data centres off an approved list of back-ups for users outside China.
