Zoom just announced that webinar calls can now be supported . It comes after various political groups used the video conferencing platform to raise money for Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign. .
The company now offers different levels to accommodate large events. Clients can choose from webinars of up to 10K, 50K, 100K, 250K, 500K and of course 1M attendees. These are one-off webinar packages that come with the support of Zoom’s Event Services team to ensure a “professional, engaging experience” for everyone.
“Event organizers now have the ability to deliver truly interactive experiences and take great one-off webinars on an unprecedented scale,” said Smita Hashim, Zoom’s chief product officer.
Despite its recent use for political fundraising, Zoom envisions a future where these large-scale virtual events are common across the enterprise, entertainment and public sectors. For example, celebrities and entertainers can use these webinar capabilities to host fan meets and other types of virtual events, the company says.
But these events don’t come cheap. Book a one-time webinar for a million people . This is actually a good deal because a webinar for 10,000 people costs $9,000, which is almost a dollar per person.
Before this change, Zoom only offered official support for up to 100,000 participants. However, the report Bloomberg indicating that the company has recently changed course .
It all started in July when an organization called Win with Black Women held a Zoom call with more than 40,000 participants in which they raised $1.5 million for the Harris campaign. It followed With 190,000 participants and With 164,000 participants.
This could be a lucrative new revenue stream for Zoom. After all, it wasn’t long ago that its stock was trading at $560, down to about $60 a share. This rapid decline was expected as the world moved away from virtual meetings and started going outside again.
