[News Inside] From a Chinese Dirt Spoon Who Couldn't Speak a Word of English to a Silicon Valley Billionaire

Zoom Video Founder Eric Yuan
Denied Visa Eight Times... Succeeded on Ninth Attempt to Set Foot in the U.S.
Became Cisco Vice President Before Starting Company at 41

▲Eric Yuan, founder of Zoom Video

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jaehee] The epitome of the Silicon Valley 'American Dream.' A dirt spoon. A self-made billionaire.

This is the story of Eric Yuan, the founder of the online video conferencing service Zoom Video, which hit the jackpot due to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Yuan was born as the son of a mining engineer in a rural village in Shandong Province, China. During his time at Shandong University of Science and Technology in the 1980s, Yuan had a long-distance relationship with his then-girlfriend, now wife, living about 10 hours apart. At that time, there was no internet in China, and he dreamed of a technology that would make it feel like they were always together despite the distance. This dream later became the foundation for founding Zoom Video.

After graduation, he worked in Beijing and was introduced to the internet's potential through American search engine Yahoo and web browser Netscape.

Then, a life-changing event occurred. After listening to a lecture by Microsoft (MS) founder Bill Gates titled "The Internet and Digital Will Change the Future," he decided to head to Silicon Valley.

However, due to insufficient English skills, he was denied a visa eight times over two years. Finally, after the ninth attempt, he managed to set foot in the United States in 1997.

Yuan began his first career in the U.S. at WebEx, a startup developing video conferencing software in Silicon Valley. Yuan was diligent and hardworking. These qualities shone through, and by his late 30s, he rose to become a vice president at Cisco, which had acquired WebEx. However, in 2011, he suddenly left the company. Declaring independence with about 40 WebEx developers, he embarked on founding a video conferencing startup he had long dreamed of.

At that time, the online video conferencing market was already a red ocean. The market was dominated by global IT giants such as MS and Google. Moreover, at the time of founding, he was 41 years old, which was not young compared to others starting startups in Silicon Valley.

[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

Everyone said his choice was 'reckless.' But he never gave up, just as he had persevered to set foot in the U.S. He believed that as a latecomer in this market, something different from the existing offerings was necessary. Finally, Yuan targeted a niche market in the already red ocean of online video conferencing with a 'customer-centric strategy.' He developed a system that could accommodate up to 100 participants simultaneously, offering features such as video recording and automatic transcription of meeting content. Additionally, by supporting easy-to-use functions like smartphone and PC screen sharing and various features needed by customers, he outcompeted rivals.

Once the business was somewhat on track, he diversified the customer base. While demand had mostly come from companies and universities, he promoted Zoom services in various fields such as doctors consulting patients and actors rehearsing. As the user base expanded, sales soared. Zoom's revenue doubled every year, from $60.8 million in 2016 to $151.5 million in 2017, and $330.5 million in 2018.

Then, benefiting from the COVID-19 boom, Zoom recorded $328.2 million in revenue in the first quarter of this year alone, matching its entire 2018 annual revenue. This was a 169% increase compared to the same period last year. In the second quarter, it achieved $663.6 million, a 355% increase over the same period.

Zoom Video, which went public on Nasdaq last year, set a remarkable record with its stock price rising 72% on the first day of listing.

Eric Yuan's net worth is $28.1 billion (approximately 32 trillion KRW), ranking 42nd on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Of this, $24.5 billion (approximately 28 trillion KRW) was earned this year.