San Francisco (AFP)

Zoom confirmed expectations on Tuesday with financial results worthy of the enthusiasm aroused by the video conferencing software during the "Grand confinement".

From January to March, the Californian company achieved a turnover increase of 169%, to more than 328 million dollars, and generated a profit of 27 million.

The social distancing measures imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic transformed communication between people, who relied heavily on video calls and conferences.

The coronavirus crisis "has resulted in greater demand for face-to-face and multi-person interactions and collaborations," noted Eric Yuan, the founder and owner of Zoom, in the results release.

"The different uses have grown rapidly as people have incorporated Zoom into their work, education and personal lives," he added.

The interface was used for family meetings, poker games, school lessons, yoga sessions or professional meetings.

The "mosaic" display, with all the faces of the participants, has become a symbol of containment, then copied by the giants of communication tools, from Facebook to Google, via Microsoft.

At the end of the first quarter, Zoom had approximately 265,400 paying customers, companies each with at least 10 employees - a jump of 354% over last year, according to the San Jose, Silicon-based company Valley.

But all was not rosy for Zoom: the massive and sudden influx of new users led to security problems and revealed faults in the management of confidential data.

The application suffered in particular from "Zoombombing", the name given to the phenomenon of intrusions by malicious people into private video calls.

New York State announced last month that it has reached an agreement with the group, which must therefore improve the protection of the platform against cybersecurity threats.

The deal ended an investigation launched in March by state attorney Letitia James into software flaws.

Zoom recently launched a philanthropic foundation that has started donating to local and international associations, including the World Health Organization.

© 2020 AFP