Our pandemic pivot to Zoom Everything brought the company some big gains

Photo: Zoom

Zoom’s Q1 revenues were up 169% over last year.

The tectonic shift to remote work crowned Zoom as one of the pandemic era’s biggest winners. Come Tuesday, one of the only questions left for Zoom to answer (beyond those pesky security woes) was: Just how big of a winner are we talking about?

The company’s quarterly earnings report yesterday brought some answers. Here are a few highlights:

• Q1 revenues grew by 169% over last year. They hit $328.2m, surpassing analysts’ estimates and even the company’s own outlook (it expected revenues of ~$200m).
• The company doubled its full-year revenue forecast. Up to ~$1.8B, from ~$905m.
• Also growing: Zoom’s costs. Its cost of revenue was up 330%, to $103.7m. The increase ate into its gross margin.

And there was another hiccup

Even Zoom’s CEO, Erin Yuan, has tech issues sometimes. From CNBC’s Jordan Novet: