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The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, despite its indelible mark on human existence, brought benefits for some. Eric Yuan is one of them.
The Chinese American has seen his own fortune nearly double over the past three months. According to Forbes, his net worth has nearly doubled, rising from $11 billion to $21.3 billion between July 24 and October 29. He has since then appeared on The Forbes 400 list of America’s wealthiest people.
The demand for Zoom, an high-flying video conferencing service, skyrocketed during the lockdown as virtual engagements replaced the conventional physical meetings, all thanks to the social distancing guideline to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The company has “grown at a fast clip as millions of people working from home continue to rely on video-conferencing.” Zoom is now said to worth more than ExxonMobil, one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies.
According to Forbes, Zoom, which began the year with a market cap of $19 billion, sported a market valuation of $139 billion, compared to Exxon’s $138.9 billion. While Exxon posted $213.8 billion in revenue in the past 12 months, Zoom, on the other hand posted $1.35 billion in revenue during that time period.
“Zoom is one of the best performing stocks so far in 2020, largely weathering the pandemic-induced sell-off in March and rising by more than 600% over the year,” Forbes reported.
Ganiu Oloruntade
