Zoom has opened a new data center in Singapore after the popular video conferencing company announced it will suspend all direct sales to mainland China from August 23.
Another tech firm wrapped up in the Chinese tech security debacle, Zoom decided to distance itself from mainland China earlier this month, announcing that it will move to a partner-only model in the country on August 3.
Yesterday, the telecommunications company opened a brand new, shiny data center in Singapore. According to Bloomberg, “the San Jose, California-based company worked with Singapore’s Economic Development Board in setting up the new data center, bringing the total to 18 sites globally”.
Although Singapore temporarily banned the use of Zoom in educational settings in the early months of lockdown because of a problem with ‘Zoom Bombing’, which saw strangers hacking into private calls, often making offensive and inappropriate remarks or showing obscene images, more than 400 schools in the city-state now use the platform.
The data center is set to create a lot of new jobs, including sales and engineering positions.
The company has had a rocky ride since starting up in December last year. It quickly – almost too quickly, perhaps – became a household name after the onset of the global coronavirus lockdowns and managed to work through some very public security and privacy issues.
Nevertheless, they came out the other side, and are continually expanding and innovating and have even ventured into hardware. The new data center sets a promising precedent, too. The company hopes to offer new services like the Zoom Phone to “scale the business in the region”.
