Last March, Zoom, the ubiquitous online conferencing platform, became a staple of daily life for many students and educators as learning shifted online. Millions downloaded it—and first learned of it—back in early 2020, when lockdowns forced billions of students online, and at least 100,000 schools onto Zoom.
But as the company itself will tell you, it didn’t spring up overnight. Zoom is actually a decade old, and the first conferences launched in 2012, limited to a mere 15 participants. While post-pandemic growth has slowed as schools resume in-person learning, the company is still flush with cash, reporting over $1 billion in revenue in the second quarter of 2021.
