Zoom bets big on India, announces Bengaluru tech centre

<div>US-based Zoom Video Communications yesterday announced plans to expand its presence in India by opening a new technology centre in Bengaluru, where it will hire key talent over the next few years.

Zoom, which already has an office in Mumbai, did not disclose the number of people it is planning to hire for the Bengaluru centre, but said that there will be "a lot of hiring".

"Zoom is focused on providing the best unified communications experience in the world and we are thrilled to open a technology center in Bengaluru, which will be an innovation hub for our communications platform," Velchamy Sankarlingam, President of Product and Engineering for Zoom, told reporters during a video call.

"The talent in India is truly exceptional and we are looking forward to expanding our DevOps, IT, Security, and Business Operations teams here as we scale our operations."

Zoom, which has two data centres in the country, said it is planning to triple its strength in its Mumbai office.

This growing presence is in direct response to Zoom's increased level of adoption by users across India.

From January to April 2020, Zoom said it has seen 6,700 per cent growth in free user sign ups in India.

The company said it will immediately begin recruiting engineers, IT, security, and business operations headcount in the area.

Employees will work from home until the pandemic-related remote work has subsided, the company said.

"We are proud to provide our services for free to over 2,300 educational institutions in India during the Covid-19 pandemic, and look forward to continuing to work with the people and government of India hand-in-hand," Eric S. Yuan, CEO of Zoom, said in a statement.

"We plan to hire key employees for the technology center over the next few years, pulling from India's highly-educated engineering talent pool. This facility will play a critical role in Zoom's continued growth."</div>.