It seems that everyone is using Zoom and talking about Zoom, or more formally Zoom Video Communications Ltd. To domainers, part of the conversation is about the
Samer started a NamePros discussion asking why they continue to use
I will summarize possible reasons, but also look more deeply at this company, as well as a few of the many other companies that use the word zoom in their name.
A Bit About Zoom
Let’s first look at how Zoom Video Communications started and developed, and then at some of the other companies using zoom as part of their brand. Along the way, we will introduce some of the many domain names involved.
So what are possible reasons why, despite purchasing it for $2 million, Zoom do not use
Whatever the reasons that they continue to use
Why Pay $2 Million for an Underused Domain Name?
The standard arguments about not wanting to lose web or email traffic, must have been considerations in the acquisition.
Furthermore, assuming they eventually plan to use it more actively, the prestige of owning your matching
With so many potential end users for
However, I think ultimately the reason is related to international expansion plans, and we will see
It would appear that the company is set to significantly expand in global markets. Operating from a
As mentioned earlier with respect to the Keybase acquisition, Zoom are expanding product offerings. As Zoom broadens the services it offers,
While it was certainly wise for Zoom to secure the
Please share your thoughts in the comments section.
I wanted to acknowledge Dofo, DomainIQ and NameBio that were used in researching aspects of this article.
Any speculations about Zoom plans or motivations expressed in this article, are those of the author, or cited sources, and not from the company itself.
.us
domain extension the company uses.Samer started a NamePros discussion asking why they continue to use
zoom.us
, when they own their matching zoom.com
name.I will summarize possible reasons, but also look more deeply at this company, as well as a few of the many other companies that use the word zoom in their name.
A Bit About Zoom
Let’s first look at how Zoom Video Communications started and developed, and then at some of the other companies using zoom as part of their brand. Along the way, we will introduce some of the many domain names involved.
- Eric Yuan founded Zoom in 2011. The first version of the company’s conferencing software was launched in summer 2012. It allowed up to 15 people to connect,
- The company became a unicorn, a startup that has achieved $1 billion valuation, in 2017, although it did not make its first profit until 2019.
- Zoom had its initial public offering in 2019. In late April 2020 the company became listed on the NASDAQ-100 index of major technology companies.
- Founder Eric Yuan was pretty determined to come to the United States from China. It took him 9 tries over 2 years to secure a visa. Once in the United States, however, he moved rapidly up in the Webex division at Cisco, becoming a vice-president in the engineering department.
- Yuan, and more than 40 other engineers, left Cisco to start what is now Zoom. They left secure positions at a huge company, and it was a bold and potentially risky move.
- When the new company was first incorporated, the name was not Zoom but rather Saasbee. One of the people involved in the early funding and development of the company, Jim Scheinman proposed the name Zoom. The name was inspired by a children’s book, Zoom City.
- Zoom is noted for thriftiness, working, especially in the early years, from frugal quarters. Even now, the CEO shares an office.
- That frugality may have been part of the reason they went with
zoom.us
for their domain name. I was not able to determine what price they paid when they secured the domain name in 2012. It seems to have been in the hands of a private domain investor prior to being acquired by Zoom in 2012. Thezoom.us
domain name was created in April, 2002. A 2006 sale ofzoom.us
at Afternic was at $1000. - The Zoom stock price has zoomed in recent months. Zoom stock was trading at nearly $175 the day I wrote this article in May 2020. The stock price was $36 at the initial public offering, although it traded well above that even by end of opening day.
- At time of writing in May 2020, the market capitalization of Zoom, about $49 billion, is more than the valuations of seven of the world’s largest airlines combined. Of course, these have not been good months for airlines.
- In May 2020 Zoom acquired Canadian technology startup
Keybase.io
, their first major acquisition of another company. The acquisition will permit Zoom to further develop enterprise encryption products. - In December 2018 Zoom Video Communications acquired
zoom.com
from Media Options for $2 million. Media Options had previously announced plans to operate a Zoom Domain Insight Service on the name, and had filed a trademark application. - The
zoom.com
domain name was created on Apr 22, 1999, just three years prior to thezoom.us
domain name. The domainzoom.com
has been used by at least two other companies prior to being acquired by Media Options. In the period leading up to 2009-2010, it was used by Zoom Telephonics Inc. of Boston, and then in 2011 by Zoom Technologies in Beijing, China. - In researching this article, I examined Zoom media releases and promotional materials, and their Twitter feed, but it does not seem Zoom are making active use of the
zoom.com
domain name outside of redirection. Their email communication is mainly via a contact form, but the address they give is[email protected]
. - Zoom do not own
ZoomUs.com
. That domain name is in use by a small marketing company in New Jersey. - Many other companies use zoom in their business or product name. There are 583 live records in the TESS trademark database alone.
- This page lists some of the companies that are, or have, used zoom in their name - it includes a Japanese audio company, a gaming company, an airline, a car sharing operation, retail kiosks service, and others.
- Numerous companies operate under the exact name zoom in different extensions. For example, ZoomHub, a service to efficiently view high resolution images, is on zoom.it, while Zoom.Me combines an app and digital photo frame to share digital images with distant loved ones.
- Dofo shows more than 24,000 active websites including word zoom, but I believe that includes some for-sale listings that have single page lander sites.
- The NameBio database shows 185 domain sales including the word zoom.
- According to Dofo there are currently 5276 domain names including the term zoom listed for sale across the covered marketplaces.
- The exact word zoom has sold for 5-figures in both
.co
and.ca
extensions. The.co
has been in use by Microsoft for a long time. The.ca
is currently in redirection use. - According to Dofo, the exact word zoom is registered in 354 extensions, with 72 of them currently listed for sale.
- Some large businesses secure their name in many different country code extensions. There does not seem to be any effort by Zoom to secure the exact term zoom in numerous country code or alternative extensions.
So what are possible reasons why, despite purchasing it for $2 million, Zoom do not use
zoom.com
for more than redirection purposes?- They don’t need to. Clearly the company has had spectacular success, this year especially. Most people know they are on
zoom.us
, so why change? The day I checked they were at the top of the first page of Google, and had an Alexa ranking in the top 100. - Zoom simply don’t have time to manage a domain name change right now. A lot has been happening with explosive growth, and dealing with security issues. Maybe moving to their new name simply has not yet got to the top of their to-do list.
- There are security concerns in changing the domain name of a major brand. They may prefer to wait until they can develop a bulletproof transition plan. Nametree explains it this way.
”I'm sure it's a matter of security above all else. They ran on zoom.us for years before purchasing the .com. Moving domains can be costly and tricky even when you do it at a smaller scale, but when you operate at Zoom's scale I imagine there are lots of security and other considerations that supersede the perceived branding superiority of
.com
.” - They simply like the phrase Zoom Us.
- If they were
zoom.com
, they might feel less differentiated from other well-established companies that are mainly on some variant of the name in the.com
extension. In a way, the.us
being an unusual extension for a major company could be seen as distinctive. In an analysis of the top 1000 companies in Crunchbase, they are the only company using a.us
extension. - They have better current uses for discretionary funds than investing in the technical and marketing effort to rebrand. They started from an engineering base with a strong emphasis on the technology and user experience.
zoom.us
, for now at least.
”Why not? The .com redirects there so there's no traffic bleed. And everyone who used them before this year knows them as zoom.us. Moving domains seems easy, but for a well established site there's a lot of considerations. While com is still king, is it a bad thing to see .us get some recognition? I mean .uk and. de are pretty popular in their respective countries, why not .us?”
Whatever the reasons that they continue to use
zoom.us
as their primary web address, it will be interesting to see if such a high-profile business on .us
may spur additional use of the extension by other major companies.Why Pay $2 Million for an Underused Domain Name?
The standard arguments about not wanting to lose web or email traffic, must have been considerations in the acquisition.
Furthermore, assuming they eventually plan to use it more actively, the prestige of owning your matching
.com
is priceless.With so many potential end users for
zoom.com
, it was smart to secure the domain name before waiting too long, even if they did not have immediate plans to use zoom.com
. It appears likely the domain name would have been gone forever, had they not secured it when they did.However, I think ultimately the reason is related to international expansion plans, and we will see
zoom.com
in future use as their main domain name. Currently, even though they have almost 500 engineers in China, and operate in most countries, the majority of Zoom paying clients are from the United States.It would appear that the company is set to significantly expand in global markets. Operating from a
.us
domain extension in those markets is problematic as explained in this article.While the”Zoom quietly acquired it (zoom.com) last year for $2 million, a domain that could prove valuable in disassociating the company from the U.S. in touchy overseas markets.”
.com
contract is also associated with the United States government, .com
is perceived to be the premier international extension, not tied to any one country.As mentioned earlier with respect to the Keybase acquisition, Zoom are expanding product offerings. As Zoom broadens the services it offers,
zoom.com
will be a better choice than zoom.us
, if the latter is associated with the phrase zoom us.While it was certainly wise for Zoom to secure the
zoom.com
domain name when they did, I don’t think that the current success of the company can be strongly associated with having that domain name. Having their matching .com
may well be critical for even greater success on the international stage going forward, however.Please share your thoughts in the comments section.
I wanted to acknowledge Dofo, DomainIQ and NameBio that were used in researching aspects of this article.
Any speculations about Zoom plans or motivations expressed in this article, are those of the author, or cited sources, and not from the company itself.
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