Analysts are running out of superlatives for cloud video-chat company Zoom Video Communications. Phrases such as “another incredible quarter” greeted a 355 per cent year-on-year jump in second-quarter sales. Buoyed by the surge in online meetings, the US business made more money in three months than the whole of 2019. On the earnings call, most questions were variations on “how do you comp [match] this amazing, spectacular performance?” 

Zoom predicts its good fortune will continue for the rest of the year. It has raised its revenue forecast 30 per cent to $2.4bn. Keeping up sales longer term will depend on three things: locking in large corporate clients, batting off Big Tech competitors and ducking the US/China tech stand-off. 

The company’s success is synonymous with the broader surge in “work from home” stocks benefiting from the pandemic. Zoom offers high quality, easy-to-use services that are free for casual users and come with a dial-in feature for those with patchy internet. The shares have jumped by more than 800 per cent from a $36 listing price last April. This, in spite of SpaceX, Nasa, the US Senate, New York schools and the German Foreign Ministry declaring they would no longer use Zoom — after the group admitted routing some calls via China.