Zoom EMEA head: International has to be a growth driver

Zoom was founded in 2011 in San Jose, California.

Best known for meetings, the collaboration tech giant has grown exponentially over the last decade.

However, the pandemic really turned the company into a household name, so fiscal year 2021 was a pivotal period for Zoom.

That year, the tech company’s revenue grew 326% year-on-year to $2.7 billion, more than 10,700 customers were onboarded to the Zoom platform, and 300 million Zoom calls were happening every day.

This financial success continued into 2022 and 2023; revenue for the fiscal year 2023 totaling $4.4 billion (7% up on the previous year), plus Zoom reached 213,000 enterprise customers.

Fiscal year 2024 is also already looking good with revenue exceeding $1 billion in each of the first two quarters.

Unfortunately, even despite continued revenue growth, scaling too quickly can have its drawbacks, and Zoom, like much of the big tech sector, was forced into a round of layoffs in February 2023.

Just a month later, in March 2023, Zoom appointed Frederik Maris as its first-ever head of EMEA. He will oversee over 700 people across the region – Zoom’s total global headcount is 7,400.

Six months into his role at Zoom, UNLEASH sat down with Maris to find out why he chose to join the tech giant, and his future plans for the EMEA region.

Moving away from US-centrism

When asked why 2023 was the right time for Zoom to hire a head of EMEA, Maris shares: “They should have done this much earlier.”

“We have probably been a bit US-centric,” adds Maris.

“If you don’t invest in having the right setup and structure in international markets, then, I think, it’s going to be more difficult to be successful there.”

A particular challenge for Zoom is that two and a half years, during the pandemic, “everything was inbound” – that’s very different today, and the company needs to break down its silos to build a fantastic go-to-market strategy.

The numbers don’t lie.

“We’ve got $6 billion in the bank. But if we want to continue to grow, then international has to be a growth driver for the company.”

This links closely with why Maris chose to work at Zoom.

“I’ve always been interested to push boundaries, to do things differently”, so he was keen to work “for an interesting company in a quickly evolving world”.

Frederik Maris, head of EMEA, Zoom.

He has joined Zoom at a time of change – the company is in the process to transform itself from being known as a video conferencing platform, into becoming an all-in-one collaboration platform.

“Our brand, our reputation is a blessing, but it’s also a curse.

“Everybody knows us for meetings, and they think we only do meetings.”

For him, the challenge is how does Zoom become a “multi-platform, multi-product company?” How does it get more focused on alternative revenue streams, like the channel?

Therefore, it is no surprise that top of mind for Maris is to rethink how resources are aligned in certain markets, countries and verticals – and doing this in a much smarter way.

“We’re making decisions on where to make our investments” with partners and products, as well as how (and where) to move headcount.

The channel is top of mind around headcount – as is the need for both depth and breadth of expertise as Zoom’s product suite becomes increasingly sophisticated and complex.

Acquisitions like Workvivo, an Irish engagement platform, are also key to customer success.

At a recent Zoomtopia event, Joseph Chong, head of product solutions, shared that Workvivo really helps Zoom play to the employee experience pain customers are struggling with around employee experience.

Zoom trying to achieve a similar level of customer-centricity through its other product innovations that Zoom announced at Zoomtopia; noteworthy examples include Zoom docs and Zoom’s AI companion.

AI companion is integrated into a whole host of Zoom products – for instance, Team Chat, Meetings and Whiteboard – and it is a great example of how AI is “playing a massive part in what we do” at Zoom – and without customers incurring additional costs – as Maris tells UNLEASH.

“AI is changing the world”, it is helping to make “the boring, tedious, repetitive tasks so much easier”.

Importantly, Zoom is committed to doing AI in a responsible and empowering way.

During Zoomtopia, Randy Maestre, head of industry marketing, shared that no customer audio, video or communication content has been used to train Zoom’s AI algorithms or any third party models the tech giant leverages.

Why hybrid is the future of work at Zoom

Zoom’s approach to growth is customer-centric – addressing the needs in the market. This is certainly how it sees its acquisition of Workvivo, as Chong shared at Zoomtopia.

This is also Zoom’s – and Maris’ – attitude regarding the company’s return to office decision.

There was a lot of buzz over the summer when Zoom announced it would be asking employees who live within 50 miles of an office (in certain markets) to work in-person two-days a week – this is expected to impact 34% of Zoom’s entire global, 7,400-person workforce.

On the surface, this may feel like a contradiction in terms as Zoom’s business boomed as a result of remote-only work in the pandemic.

But the reality is a lot more complex. “The world, going forward, is going to be hybrid”, and because of the types of products that Zoom offers to its customers, “we have to be hybrid”, we have to walk the walk.

“We want to make sure that experience in the office is good, so people want to come back”, as well as design tools that provide an equitable experience for everyone, whether they are remote or in office.

Zoom recently opened a new London office – Maris shares that he recently visited.

“It’s just good to see people, to be able to catch up, to have lunch or a coffee with people in the same room.”

He’s not the only one who feels this – Maris tells UNLEASH that Zoom employees are enjoying being back in the office – “it is helping to raise spirits”.

In fact, he adds: “I am getting more questions from other countries [about] when can we go back to the office?” than people complaining about being asked to come in.

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