Popular video conferencing platform Zoom has denied its links to China. In a blog post, they had mentioned that there has been some confusion about the facts as it relates to Zoom and that Zoom has been pretty much clear about its identity, of it being a US company which is being publicly traded on the NASDAQ, and it is headquartered in San Jose, California. This was being said by Velchamy Sankarlingam, who happens to be the president of engineering and product at Zoom.
Sankarlingam was being hired by Zoom this year in May from VMware in order to help scale the business in India and also in other international markets. He further stressed on Zoom’s presence in India that has been represented on the ground by an office in Mumbai, along with two data centers – in Mumbai and Hyderabad.
With the Indian government banning 59 Chinese apps, which is inclusive of the popular ones like TikTok, WeChat, Shareit, and Camscanner, they were believed to have cited threats to India’s sovereignty and security. Also in April, the Ministry of Home Affairs had issued an advisory warning that Zoom isn’t a safe platform to use and had put out a set of guidelines for individual users that may follow ensuring their safety while using the app for private purposes.
After this, there has been a tightening of security through various measures by Zoom and that they have also acquired identity management firm ‘Keybase’ in May, in order to roll out end-to-end encryption on its platform.
Sankarlingam further said that they also have plans for a significant amount of investment in India over the next five years, which would include expanding its footprint and hiring top talent in the region. He concluded by saying that India is and would continue to be an important market for Zoom, and that they are pretty much exciting opportunities in the region. He further added that Zoom looks forward to engaging with more stakeholders in India in the near future and that they would also be supportive of initiatives like ‘Digital India’, ‘StartUp India’, and ‘Skills India’.