How Eric Yuan Was The Big Winner Of The Pandemic

2020 may have been a write off of a year for most, however Zoom founder and CEO, Eric Yuan can probably consider this year his most successful yet.

After the rise in employees all over the globe working from home, Zoom quickly became the go-to software to keep communication (and rapport) up within virtual workplaces.
Yuan first developed the tech during his university days to keep in touch with his long-distance girlfriend.

Turns out that long-distance pining all paid off, Yuan’s net worth increased 360% over 2020, where he is now estimated to be worth US$17 billion.

1970
Eric Yuan was born in Tai’an, Shandong, China

1987
While at university, developed vidoetelephony software to have an easier way to visit his long-distance girlfriend

1997
Moved to Silicon Valley to work in the tech industry
at web conferencing startup, WebEx.

2007
Became Vice President of Engineering at Cisco Systems

2011
After his pitch of a new smartphone-friendly video conferencing system was rejected by management at Cisco, he left to establish Zoom Communications

2013
Zoom has 1 million users

2017
Zoom valued at US$1 billion

2019
Zoom becomes a public company after an IPO, where share prices increased over 72% on its first day of trading

April 2020
Daily average use rose to 300 million daily meeting participants, due to the Covid-19 pandemic

June 2020
Zoom is valued at over $67 billion

 

Get inspired by other top entrepreneurs by reading The Best Things Ever Said.