One sentence describes the software that everyone in the global blockchain circle loves to use: the community must open Telegram, and the meeting must use Zoom.
Odaily interviewed Zhao Changpeng, and Binance said it would use Zoom; the American blockchain company Paxos accepted an interview with Odaily and also recommended Zoom; even EOS supernodes held "Constitution Amendment Meetings" and also used Zoom.
In the cross-border interviews in the chain circle, the sense of presence of Zoom obviously surpassed that of Skype.
Zoom is a video conferencing provider. Its software can be understood as Skype with a slightly simpler UI; WeChat with no circle of friends, no official account, and only communication functions. Users don't even need to register to participate in meetings. It can also support traditional enterprise meeting room hardware video conferencing terminals, PCs, and telephone access when there is no network, and also supports integration with enterprise assistance software such as Slack.
Today, the company is listed. Yesterday was the first day of zoom's listing, and its stock price rose by 72%, with a valuation of $16.2 billion.
Founder Yuan Zheng looked confusedSay to Forbes:"I do not know why either."
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Smooth and low latency, automatically adjust the definition
The good user experience is the reason given by the users of the chain circle. Even in the multinational meeting, there is no lag and the delay is very low.
"It's really smooth and easy to use." Wang Bo of Secret Ape Technology recommended Zoom.
Although as a user, I got stuck for a while when using it. But the agent in China told me that if your last mile network is too bad, I can't help you.
After consulting with several people in the cloud video industry, Odaily found that Zoom has a good reputation in the industry, and many corporate customers will use this software. "Some scenarios cannot tolerate delays, such as when interacting with teachers in class." Cloud live broadcast platformMaodou.comFounder Li Ming said that many online classrooms have started to use Zoom.
"Why do you say that Zoom is particularly good in the process of using it? This has something to do with the background of the times." Li Ming believes that the beginning of Zoom's establishment happened to be the transition from the PC Internet era to the mobile Internet era.
The traditional video conferencing industry is oriented to government agencies and large enterprises, so it mainly adapts to large screens and multi-faceted equipment in company conference rooms. For many small businesses, they simply cannot afford this money. In the future, cloud video SaaS will be an incremental market; moreover, many corporate employees may be in second- and third-tier cities, not to mention conference rooms, and 4G may not even be popularized yet.
Zoom's official website claims: "When your mobile device is running in 3G or 4G/LTE mode, the zoom app will only send a maximum of 1MB/min of data per Apple's data plan bandwidth usage guidelines."
"Zoom has always been positioning the mobile Internet. It has to adapt to various mobile networks, including 3/4G networks, and even some mobile devices themselves are very frustrated. It is very successful in making network adaptation. Simply put, it is based on each The available bandwidth of the user and the resolution of the screen optimize the video. If the signal is not good, the picture can be blurred, but the audio must be good.” Li Ming said.
Cloud video product manager Chen Yao believes, "They only have mobile and PC terminals, and there is no conference room hardware terminal in the early stage, and the area for image presentation is relatively limited." As mentioned above, traditional to B enterprise equipment needs to pay attention to the large screen of the meeting.
In the past, the conference system of the enterprise had to build dedicated lines and systems, which was expensive. The adaptive + SaaS strategy actually makes Zoom not only to B but also to C, not to mention that the two are integrated to some extent. After all, the end users of software are employees. Today's companies have employees all over the place, not just in high-end offices. As Yuan Zheng, the founder of Zoom, believes, we must pay attention to the influence of employees on corporate decision-making. If the C-end employees feel that a product is easy to use, they will naturally recommend it to the company.
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Widely distributed nodes: burning money to build a network + open system
Before discussing how powerful Zoom's underlying technology is, we need to pay attention to the scale of node deployment.
Almost every interview with Odaily mentioned Zoom's server density, which is the focus of low latency.
"If you are in Guangzhou and I am in Beijing, we have a meeting. If the nearest server is in Shanghai, then (the information) has to go around and fly to Shanghai for the meeting. This way the delay will be relatively high." Li Ming gave an example , if it happens that Beijing Haidian and Guangzhou Baiyun have servers closer to us, of course the delay will be much lower. Not to mention the delay if the parties to the meeting are in different countries and continents.
"(Nodes) are more important than algorithms."A senior person in the communication industry said bluntly that the fact that there are more nodes is "reliable" because "it is true that the bottom layer cannot make too much money."
"It's like my algorithm is ten times stronger than yours, so how much hair do I have to lose to write it?" He joked, explaining that the improvement of the algorithm is not a one-day effort. "I'm old, and my subconscious mind is more concerned about hair volume."
This is also an important reason why many blockchain users feel that the Zoom experience is better than that of WeChat or Skype in cross-border interviews or meetings: the servers of WeChat and Skype are mainly concentrated in China or the United States, which means that each interaction has a message "transnational". Transmission", Zoom does not.
Then the question comes again, what does Zoom rely on to lay out nodes?
Burn money + open.
Open refers to their authorization policy.
"Skype is a closed system, agents can only sell their accounts directly, and most of the servers are in the United States. Zoom is an open strategy, allowing agents to deploy themselves." Wu Tian, who has been an agent of Zoom in China since 2014, believes that this Increased willingness of agents. Zoom has authorized many agents in China to use their products. Even industry insiders said that some domestic companies live broadcast the company's products, "it's Zoom's technology wrapped in a shell."
The openness here, the popular understanding is that Zoom will open its interface to agents or some large enterprises, but the latter can retain their own brand externally. At the same time, these local operators help Zoom deploy and operate nodes, and the global Zoom Shared nodes expand Zoom's node density.
And dare to burn money.
"In fact, other companies also have an open strategy and can deploy nodes, but compared with Zoom, the deployment cost can reach 10 times." Wu Tian added that Zoom's strategy of obviously burning money to expand the scale, "For example, if you download software from their website now, you It's free."
Li Ming of Maodou.com also emphasized Zoom’s huge investment in building the website, “They have also fused several rounds.” He believes that most of Zoom's financing is invested in building servers and algorithms. "Technology needs to burn money, and small companies can only do things that are easier to use."
According to Crunchbaseimage description
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Poach a Ph.D. from Zhejiang University to develop self-developed video coding technology
After the network is built, what is related to the experience is the underlying technology.
"The architecture does not adopt the MCU method." The MCU (multi control unit, multi-point control unit) mentioned by Chen Yao here is the mainstream equipment architecture of traditional multi-person video conferencing.
According to public information, MCU is essentially a multimedia information switch. The difference between MCU and ordinary switches is that the switch completes the point-to-point connection of signals, while the MCU completes multipoint-to-multipoint switching, tandem or broadcast. It processes images, data, and sounds in multipoint conferences, and determines the format and quality of images and audio.
Zoom uses a CMC video router.
According to Zoom's official technical introduction, this is an important part of the Zoom system (including public cloud and private cloud). CMC provides a media stream switching platform for video conferencing and is a control point for signaling and media.
The adaptiveness mentioned at the beginning (AVL - adaptive video layering, adaptive video layering), that is, to optimize the video according to the network bandwidth, CPU performance, device resolution, etc. The switch is completed, and Zoom's patented technology H.264 SVC video coding can be dynamically optimized according to the receiver's bandwidth and CPU resources.
CMC is mainly responsible for packet forwarding, and all video and audio codec work is done on the zoom conference room hardware terminal.
This is different from the traditional MCU. The traditional video conferencing solution has a large delay, mainly because the MCU must perform codec conversion and other processing, which increases the delay of the conference. Zoom's CMC video switch transfers the encoding and decoding to the hardware terminal, and optimizes the encoding.The data given by Zoom is that the maximum delay will not exceed 200ms.
The encoding mentioned here is optimized,Zoom official websiteOne of the methods mentioned is: increase the compression.
Traditional compression techniques are slow and cannot compress files very small, otherwise the quality will be affected.
However, Zoom’s official website stated: “Zoom has invested a lot of money in the compression method. After several years of research and development, the compression speed has finally been made faster, and the compressed file capacity is smaller. The most important thing is that it will not affect The clarity of video and audio."
"The compression rate is too high. If packet loss is fatal, it should mainly rely on redundancy and compensation." The above-mentioned senior telecom practitioner said that in addition to compression, video coding technology also needs to look at redundancy and compensation. "Redundancy means sending the same data multiple times, or sending it in different forms at the same time, especially key frames. Compensation means losing packets but trying to rebuild them, or blurring the middle to make people feel better."
In terms of fault tolerance, Zoom has a packet loss rate of 20%, which is acceptable to users (the prospectus says that 40% can also maintain smoothness). In the previous MCU video solution, the packet loss rate of the network must be below 1%.
To be able to develop a coding technology that is superior to others, it is also inseparable from the CEO's willingness to pay a lot of money to poach people.
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Extremely heavy sales: low-price promotion + let every employee be a salesperson
However, the smoothness brought about by the new architecture and the effects of network adaptation and other technologies are not necessarily unique to Zoom.
For example, video sites such as iQiyi that we usually contact will also automatically adjust the definition.
"The open strategy uses a new technical system and correct strategies." After Wu Tian concluded, he also emphasized that in fact, the industry as a whole is using a new technical system, and many of the technical effects mentioned above cannot be considered unique to Zoom. It can only be said that the solutions of each company are different, and there is no industry standard yet.
"The original H.323 protocol in the video industry has been around for a long time. It was invented by an Israeli in 1999. Now it has not kept up with the times. Many live video companies are developing new technologies by themselves. Including JD.com's internal meeting problems. I heard that Liu Qiangdong rewarded that person; Chen Yao and his company’s agreement is also new.” Even as an agent of Zoom China, Wu Tian still honestly believes that the underlying effects of the agreements of companies in the industry are similar.
Indeed, according to public information, mobile video conferencing providers such as Vidyo also feature features such as "no need for expensive old-fashioned hardware and dedicated networks, and affordable prices". The reason why Zoom is well-known is inseparable from his unique sales strategy. of.
"There must be many patents on the underlying audio and video codec. This is the least effective one. It can only improve the user experience and keep your experience ahead." Li Ming believes that this has nothing to do with the technical background of the founder Yuan Zheng Relevant, let him focus on products and experience, instead of focusing on sales like ordinary to B companies.
Experience is very important, but must focus on sales.
public speaking, Yuan Zheng summed up where he hopes employees will develop. He mentioned: "Lead by sales."
"Except for the sales team, everyone else in the company, including HR, should be thinking about selling the company's products to the outside world at any time." He said that people in the elevator recommend Zoom; neighbors recommend Zoom on weekends; Delete, I have to reply and ask the other party to use zoom.
“A technical founder takes sales very seriously.This is also what I want to learn. That's why Zoom is profitable. Li Ming believes that this is a trait that many technical founders lack.
According to the prospectus of zoom, the annual sales expenses account for more than half of the total revenue, and the proportion has increased for two consecutive years. On the contrary, the proportion of research and development expenses is decreasing.
As an analyst at Northern Light Venture CapitalXu NingHe believes that in enterprise services, when a technology becomes standard configuration, “0.1% and 0.2% effects are no longer enough to be called barriers.” Providing solutions to customers is still the core of an enterprise service company.
Rather, Zoom hasOwn unique sales funnel from C to B, and this strategy is very suitable for the target customer group.
"The SaaS model hits the pain point of small and medium-sized enterprises: conference system development is expensive." Li Ming analyzed that small and medium-sized enterprises are very similar to ordinary C-ends, extremely sensitive to prices, and have low willingness to pay. At the same time, SMEs have fewer employees and flat management, and ordinary employees are more likely to influence decision-making at the company level.
Chen Yao added: "They adopt the strategy of public cloud and sales by account, which greatly reduces the decision-making time of users and enables the market to spread rapidly."
For start-up companies, it is better to think about how to survive before spending huge sums of money to buy a conference system.
Isn’t this the status quo of most blockchain companies?There are many people using Zoom in the blockchain circle, which may have something to do with Zoom’s main customers: small and medium-sized enterprises, price-sensitive, and employees are widely distributed (meaning that the network level is uneven).
After reading the introduction of Zoom, do you understand why the blockchain circle loves to use it?
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I am Lu Xiaoming (lohiuming), the reporter and editor of Odaily. If there are any omissions in the article, please advise. If you add friends, please note your name, unit, position and reason.
I am Lu Xiaoming (lohiuming), the reporter and editor of Odaily. If there are any omissions in the article, please advise. If you add friends, please note your name, unit, position and reason.
