Video conferencing is a technology that allows users in different locations to hold real-time face-to-face meetings at little to no cost.

Zoom Video Communications, an American San Jose, California-based company, started as Zoom provides video telephony and online chat service through cloud-based peer-to-peer platform. This platform is used for video communications (meetings), messaging (chat), conference rooms for video meetings (rooms), virtual events (events) and contact centres (contact centres).

Yuan, a former Cisco engineer founded it in 2011, and launched its software in 2013. In 2012, Zoom launched a beta version with conferencing holding capability of up to 15 people. Stanford was its first customer. Later, it launched version 1, increasing its hosting capacity up to 25 participants. It expanded its user base to 4 lac by May, 2013.

In 2017, Zoom started holding its annual user conference. It also tied up with Facebook to integrate Zoom to AR, integration with Slack and Workplace, and took baby steps to AI speech recognition programme.

In July 2020, Zoom announced its first hardware-as-a-service product. It bundled its video conferencing software with third party hardware. It ran on ServiceNow platform. It commenced with Zoom Rooms and Zoom Phone offering in the USA. The hardware can be acquired against a fixed monthly cost. In 2020, zoom announced Zoom Home — products for home use. It was a collaboration between Zoom and DTEN.

Zoom Webinar facilitates an event round the clock, round the globe.

Zoom allows work from home ( WFH) and avoiding physical meetings. Individuals meet and work productively face-to-face when meeting in person is not practical.

Zoom is used for video conferencing, audio conferencing, webinars, meeting recordings and live chat.

Zoom is the most popular cloud-based video conferencing platform that is used by companies having 500 employees and more or fewer. It is the second most popular application for companies with 500 plus employees after Skype for Business. Half the Fortune 500 companies are using Zoom. The most widely used apps are Zoom Meetings and Zoom Rooms.

Technology

Most video conferencing is transmitted by over a high-speed broadband internet connection, the technology of which is similar to VoIP — voice over internet protocol. However, at times, LAN or ISDN connections are used.

The visual information is exchanged using webcams or digital video. Audio content may be distributed via computer or the telephone system.

The five best video conferencing platforms are Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Whereby and WebEx Meetings.

Zoom uses Android and Ionic frameworks — Android Studio, Visual Studio, Android SDK, Apple Code, iOS SDK. Swift and Objective C are used for iOS backend, while Kotlin and Jawa are used for Android applications.

Web Conferencing

Apart from video conferencing, there is audio conferencing and web conferencing. Web conferencing is used for presentation for online course, online training and distance learning.

Web conferencing could be webcast, webinar and web meeting. Most web conferencing platforms use WebRio technology, an open source technology supported by majority of web browsers. It leverages APIs to deliver real-time communications (RTC).

Zoom Meeting

Zoom Meeting is the foundation of Zoom. It refers to video conferencing meetings. It allows remote and co-located attendees. There is frictionless communication. A person does not require a zoom account to attend Zoom Meeting. You can meet clients or can conduct interviews with remote candidates virtually.

In other words, Zoom Meeting is simply a meeting hosted using Zoom. Attendees can join the meeting in person (via webcam, a video conferencing camera, or via phone).

This meeting can be attended in company’s conference room by pairing Zoom Meeting with Meeting Owl Pro to create an inclusive meeting experience.

Zoom Room

One has to set up physical hardware to allow companies to initiate Zoom Meetings from conference rooms. These are software-defined video conferencing systems room. It allows to schedule, launch and run Zoom Meeting with the push of a button. Additional subscription is charged. It is suitable for large companies.

For zoom meetings, a computer has to sync and run Zoom meetings. Tablets are used by attendees to launch Zoom Meetings. The hardware of mike, camera and speaker is necessary. HDTV monitors display remote meeting partners. You require HDMI cable to share computer screens on the TV display and internet cable to hardwire the connection.

Initiation

Choose the right plan for the team. Zoom free is for solo workers or one or two individuals. Its duration is 40 minutes, Zoom Pro is best option where at least one member is working remotely. Hosts have personal meeting IDs. Recording of a meeting in cloud is possible. Business can brand its meetings Zoom Enterprise is suitable for Business with 100 plus employees. There is unlimited cloud storage. Zoom Business is suitable for SMEs. Zoom Rooms is another plan.

After choosing the plan, download Zoom, Sync it to your calendar. Schedule a Zoom Meeting. Choose between New Meeting or Schedule Meeting. Edit the details of the meeting. In the Meeting itself, mike can be turned on or off. The same is true for video. You can invite other participants and chat with them. Record the meeting and share the screen.

Private Zoom Meeting

Zoom bombing occurs when an uninvited individual gains access to Zoom Meeting. The intent is to disrupt the meeting. It could be prevented by making use of privacy settings.

Zoom Phone

The company is in talk with the regulators and will announce its introduction when it is ready. It is a cloud phone service. Users will be able to make calls to any of their internet-enabled devices.

Cross-Platform Integration

With Zoom plugin, users of Microsoft Teams will be able to join a Zoom Meeting.

Other Uses

In India, Zoom is being used by anganwadis to deliver education, and hospitals to provide health care. Banks use it for their KYC process. Zoom records can become evidence for sexual harassment. In pandemic, the company made available Zoom to over 3000 schools absolutely free.

DTEN

It partners with Zoom for hardware equipment. There are other partners — Logitech, Poly, Creston. Zoom specialises in software.

Issues

There are security issues. There are privacy issues. The encryption is from Zoom end-point to Zoom end-point ( Zoom servers and clients). Zoom was investigated by SEC. Kiosk Mode allows visitors to check in with a receptionist virtually on a Kiosk, with no physical contact.

Zoom, invites ethical hackers to find flaws and report them so that they can improve their offerings. The hackers are rewarded for their work. There is constant engagement with CIOs and CSOs from companies across the industries and provide solutions. There is third-party certification and audit.

In Asia Pacific region, a large chunk of subscribers are from India.

Skype Video Conferencing

Another video conferencing app is Skype. However, Zoom offers far more robust business features than those of Skype. Zoom Meetings can be held for up to 1000 people, whereas Skype limits it to 100 people. Skype is basic, whereas Zoom has advanced features. Skype does not support end-to-end encryption. Skype calls are free. Users pay only for premium features. There is no language translation service in skype. Sound quality is dependent on bandwidth. There are background noises.

Skype to Skype is free, but from skype to cells or landline costs in the US $3 a month.

MS has retired Skype on January 31, 2022.

Other video meeting apps are Slack, open source Big Blue Button with whiteboard, Blue Jeans, Whereby, Go ToMeeting, CISCO WebEx which is industry standard service, Google Meet and Blackboard Collaborate, a product of choice for educators.

The data centre industry is poised for a period of sustained growth. The government has granted data centres the status of infrastructure industry. Businesses are making use of digital infrastructure. Data centres are a capital intensive industry. Its status makes it eligible for long-term funding at lower costs both domestically and globally. It will facilitate its geographical expansion. India can emerge as a regional data centre hub. There are large data centres and edge data centres. New capacities can be added to the edge sites to enable 5G, edge and security services. Data centres consume energy, and the use of green energy must be scaled up. IoT, 5G rollout , OTT and gaming will strengthen the edge story. There would be hyperscale data parks across major metro cities.

Game streaming has emerged as an important career choice for the youth, since it is remunerative. There are YouTube videos on game streaming. There could be streaming on Rooter which was launched in 2020. The idea is to keep the audience engaged by creativity and the strength of the content. There are people who earn a good response even on YouTube. There are brand endorsements too.

InMobi has the lock screen platform called Glance which could be used for streaming. There is another platform called Loco. People can have millions of followers on such platforms. Game streaming is becoming a career choice generating good money — say from 30 thousand to several lacs. Live-streaming gaming including video games is a $1 billion dollar industry in India.

Platforms could be monotiseel — sponsorships and advertisements, super chats. Platforms take a major portion of revenue, but Rooter gives streamers as much as 90 percent.

Game streaming came into vogue in India after PUB-G was launched in 2018. There are multiple-player games now. The incentives are smart phones and cheaper data plans.

YouTube has the largest user-generated content. There are other platforms like Rooter, Loco, Glance and Turnip. As the opportunities of monetisation are less on YouTube, the other platforms have flourished.

On YouTube, a user gets attention when he has at least 1000 subscribers and the content gets watched for at least 4000 hours. Rooter on boards those who are not growing on YouTube. On Rooter, the top 100 games earn Rs.50-75 thousand per month, through brand endorsements and influential marketing. Rooter has 35 million subscribers and 1 million monthly active users (MAUs). Glance LIVE Fest has just concluded. Glance wants to invest more in such tournaments.

The new guidelines issued by the government under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 state an advertisement, that directly or indirectly, indicates that it is a promotion for a product or service that is prohibited or restricted by law, will be regarded as surrogate ad. Clause 6 of the CCPA notification prohibits surrogate advertising but does not offer any clarity on brand extensions. Here ASCI’s role will be important.

Ads that may use any brand name, logo, colour, layout and presentation associated with a product/service whose ads are restricted will be treated as surrogate ads.

It is expected that these guidelines are implemented strictly. Surrogate ads flourish despite the regulation. Products such as cigarettes, tobacco products, wine, alcohol are visible. The Cable and Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995 prohibits their promotion. There is a difference between genuine brand extension and one whose consumption is curbed in the country.

Brands try to circumvent the rules and promote products such as water, music labels, soda and flavoured condiments as extensions. It is also necessary to monitor the social media. In addition, sponsoeship events by these brands remain a grey area.

The idea behind the guidelines is to prevent misleading advertisements. This includes surrogate ads. Surrogate advertising sidesteps the rules.

Initially, foreign firms such as Texas Instruments set up an R&D centre in India. Many other companies followed suit, e.g. Veritas Software, AT&T/Lucent, Sun Microsystems.

Later, these R&D centres evolved into capability centres which design products and work in areas such as AI and digital marketing. They are called Global Capability Centres or Captives. They initially provided back office support and product innovation data and analytic support. Today they have moved from back office to front office. To begin with, they were cost control centres. Today, they are product developers.

GCCs offer substantial employment opportunities. GCC manpower have set up many startups in India. GCCS were set up in Bangalore and Pune. Bangalore provided the educational infrastructure, especially the research promoting IISC. Infosys and Wipro too provided the support.

GCCs were mainly into doing backend IT, customer support and finance in the 1990s and 2000s. Later they moved into supply chain, sales, HR, R&D and high value-added activities. These days they directly move into high value-added activities.

MNCs entering into India take build, operate and transfer route. Indian IT service providers supported them. The transfer fee was charged by the IT companies. This model lost ground as MNCs did not welcome the manpower of IT service companies on account of differences in quality. There was a cultural gap too. The companies now take the greenfield route. Here there are issues of transfer pricing — the price at which products are transferred between the parent and subsidary organisations and vide versa after value addition. The government must simplify the transfer pricing structure.

In Liverpool, there was a painter called Francis Barraud. His brother’s name was Mark who had a pet terrier dog called Nipper. Mark expired. Francis got his old cylinder gramophone player and the dog. When the gramophone was played, the dog came running to listen to the records, confused as it was about the source of the sound. Francis painted the scene and called it His Master’s Voice. The Gramophone Company purchased this painting in 1899 for 100 pounds. Soon the logo picked up, and the Gramophone Company changed its name to HMV. Nipper was immortalised with his blue plaque in London in 2014.

There is an issue of whether enterprises should lease spectrum from telcos or get direct allocations of spectrum from the government. The Digital Communication Commission (DCC) and Trai are in favour enterprise obtaining spectrum directly from the government. Telcos oppose this as it will shrink their revenues by 40 per cent.

In favour of CPNs

TCS is in favour of CPN seeking greater participation to realise the potential of Industry 4.0. There will be greater security and control over data. TCS cites the examples of the US, Britain, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Sweden, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Australia where mid-band mm wave spectrum has been earmarked exclusively for private networks. Infosys too plans to lease spectrum for deploying CPNs for its clients. Wipro, HCL, Tech Mahindra also seek greater participation of CPNs.

There is convergence of technologies — IoT, edge computing, AI, 5G and hybrid cloud. There is data traffic between machines. There are sensors capturing data at the edge. The decisions are taken in milliseconds. There is no transfer of information to cloud. There is saving of both bandwidth and costs.

Smart factories, smart homes, smart transportation, smart cities, smart energy will proliferate. In the traffic, images dominate. AI at the edge plays a role in filtering out data that is not useful.

Proprietary information should flow on their own CPNs.

Against CPNs

Telcos are heavily indebted. They have muted interest in 5G auctions. If CPNs too get direct spectrum, it will be a bold decision of the government. The enterprises have less experience in setting up networks. If spectrum is given cheap to enterprises, it will open up a Pandora’s box.

Despite the protests, the union cabinet has gone ahead with allowing direct allocation of spectrum to private captive networks in keeping with the global trend. India will now join Germany, UK, France, Italy, US, South Korea, Japan, China and Saudi Arabia — which have assigned spectrum for private usage of 5G.

Private networks can be used in manufacturing, mining, power sector, railways, oil and gas, ports, airports, warehousing, public venues, wind farms among others.

Organisations can choose from several vendors, or else can tie up with IT companies or Big Tech. They will not just be dependent on telcos.

The central government in June 2022 notified new guidelines under the Consumer Protection Act in a bid to curb misleading advertisements. The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) prohibit the endorser of a misleading advertisement from making any other endorsement for up to one year. For subsequent contravention, prohibition can extend up to three years.

The CCPA can impose penalty of up to Rs.10 lac on manufacturers, advertisers and endorsers for any misleading advertisements. It is to be ensured that consumers are not fooled with unsubstantiated claims, exaggerated promises, misinformation and false claims. For subsequent contraventions, the penalty can go up to Rs.50 lac. Celebrities will have to declare stakes in brands they endorses failing which the advertisement will be considered misleading. It is clause 14 of the notification.

Advertisers do use creative license, and make use of tools like humour and exaggeration to get their point across. The unbridled power to an external agency to scrutinise ads may affect the creative process adversely. It should be ensured that this does not happen.

These guidelines make it mandatory for celebrity endorsers to disclose their material interest in the product they are endorsing. These new rules on Prevention of Misleading Advertisements and Endorsements, 2022 came into force with immediate effect.

Some guidelines are expected for the reviews on e-commerce platforms. Some of these reviews could be fake.

There are exaggerated claims made by Edutech advertisers and cryptocurrency traders. The department of consumer affairs has called a meeting of the stakeholders.

These rules lay down conditions for bait advertisement which offer products at relatively low price to attract consumers.

Advertising was so far a self-regulating profession. However, with the advent of digital advertising, it is necessary to bring an external agency to exercise some control.

No surrogate advertisement or indirect advertisement shall be made for products whose advertising is otherwise prohibited or restricted by law.

Clause 8 of the new guidelines disallows junk food and beverages ads with any children’s programme or channel.

Standalone digital banks are called neo-banks. They are a part of fintech players — fintech provides financial products through electronic platforms.

Fintechs do so by three ways. First of all, they set up entities which compete with banks, e.g. digital banks. Secondly, they set up entities which collaborate with banks by providing services such as KYC checks, loan processing, loan collection, risk management and so on. Thirdly, they set up entities that eliminate financial intermediaries, e.g. peer-to-peer lending platforms.

Standalone digital banks pose the most direct threat to banks. However, these do not take the banks head on. They target high risk customers which banks tend to avoid, e.g. individuals with lower incomes or credit scores.

Digital banks cannot earn much fee income as they deal with lower income clients. Many may think that digital banks save on maintaining brick-and-mortar branches, and thus may have lower operating expenses. This is not true. They have huge marketing expenses. Many digital banks are loss making.

Banking experience suggests that branches will retain their centrality. Digital banking cannot substitute the branch, especially in customer acquisition and customer retention. Digital banking is an added service to sustain the business.

Apple intends to offer its products by entering into the financial services field. It has designed its Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) programme. The programme will be handed by a wholly owned subsidiary. It will oversee credit checks and will take decisions on loans. Apple is thus taking a financial initiative for the first time. So far Apple products were financed by third party credit processors and banks. Even the Apple’s Credit Card was backed by Goldman Sachs.

Apple’s Pay Later transactions will be capped depending on a user’s credit history. The customer can split up the cost over for instalments across six weeks. The initiative will be introduced in the US first. Later it will be expanded to more regions.

BNPL for a longer period is in the offing. It is called Apple Pay Monthly Installments. This longer term initiative could be backed by other companies.

Apple has acquired Credit Kudas, UK to make lending decisions.