REPORT
While the coronavirus pandemic has shut down much of the global economy, some sectors are benefiting from the crisis. This is particularly the case with video conferencing tools. Until now, they have been used mainly for remote work. But for lack of being able to go out, we now use it to take news of our family, organize a virtual aperitif ... We knew Skype but it is another application that steals the limelight today: Zoom. In two months, the value of the company has doubled: it is worth almost as much as Uber.
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"We're going to have a family reunion"
"We are very happy to be able to use this because a wink, to see each other, it's nice," says Marcelle. With her husband Lucien, they are confined to a country house, near Saint-Etienne. Aged 82 and 84, respectively, they used the Zoom app for the first time this weekend for a virtual aperitif with their friends from the walking club.
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"Everyone took an aperitif at home. We did 'tchin-tchin' with our glasses and we talked about our week a little," says Marcelle. They will soon be testing family videoconferencing. "The grandchildren are a bit dispersed, we're going to have a family reunion precisely."
2 million downloads per day
With two million downloads per day worldwide, ten times more than a month ago, Zoom is enjoying tremendous success, especially since it is not necessary to have an excellent Internet connection to use it, explains Loïc Rousseau, director of Zoom France.
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"Our technology allows us not to be bandwidth intensive. So if you have friends in a somewhat isolated region that does not have a lot of network, they will be able to connect," he said.
The success of Zoom gives hackers ideas. False sites, malicious files: the application has been particularly targeted for a week. So make sure you download the correct one, called "Zoom.us".