01
Zoom已经家喻户晓
阿帕娜·巴瓦
Zoom首席运营官阿帕娜·巴瓦和同事们在今年初非常忙碌，四月的时候由于时间紧张，她们不得不轮流安排睡觉时间。
"It has been insane, but there is a time and a place. And I personally feel a strong sense of obligation. We [at Zoom] are so lucky that we can provide this service."
“这真是太疯狂了，但有的时候， 我个人感觉到了强烈的责任感。Zoom很荣幸能为大家提供视频会议的服务。”
Roll back to the start of this year, and it is fair to say that most people hadn't heard of Zoom, even though the company had launched in Silicon Valley in 2012, and had grown into a very successful business.
Most of us didn't bother with video calls, either for work or in our personal life. Then the coronavirus pandemic hit in March.
Zoom于2012年在硅谷成立，已经是一家成功的企业了，但回到今年年初，可以说大多数人都没有听说过它。无论是在工作中还是个人生活里，我们大多数人都不关心视频电话。直到今年三月，疫情席卷全球。
"At the end of December 2019 I remember thinking 'goodness we are in a great place', as we had, on average, 10 million daily meeting participants," says Ms Bawa. "By April we had reached 300 million daily meeting participants, and it has stayed around that level ever since."
巴瓦女士说：“2019年12月底，我记得我曾想过‘我们公司如日中天’，因为平均每天有1000万人参加视频会议，到4月，每天有3亿人参加，之后一直保持在这个数字。”
How do Zoom's figures compare with its rivals?Google Meet uses the same daily participants metric, whereby a user will be counted for every meeting he or she attends that day. It says its numbers "had a peak of 235 million" in the third quarter of this year.
zoom的数据和竞争对手相比如何？Google Meet也使用每日会议参与人数来衡量，用户在当天参加的每一次会议都会被计算在内。该公司表示，今年第三季度的用户峰值达到了2.35亿。
Meanwhile, Microsoft Teams, which only counts a person once, no matter how many meetings they join per day, said that by October daily users of its service had grown to 115 million.
同时，微软团队表示，到10月份，他们的用户已增加到每天1.15亿人。
Facebook wouldn't reveal numbers for its Messenger Rooms video conferencing service, but said that daily video calls across its Messenger app in general now totalled more than 150 million.
Facebook不愿透露其Messenger Room视频会议服务用户的数量，但表示该APP的每日视频通话总数目前已超过1.5亿次。
02
为什么zoom特别受欢迎？
Martin Veitch, contributing editor at technology website IDG Connect, says that Zoom has been "the right company at the right time".
He adds: "I think the key reasons for its success are ease of use, the 'freemium' business model... and strong underlying technology that deals well with sub-standard internet connectivity."
技术网站IDG Connect的特约编辑马丁·韦奇说，Zoom“生逢其时”。他补充道：“我认为成功的关键原因有易用性、“免费”商业模式以及强大的基础技术，能够很好地处理不合标准的网络连接问题。”
Angela Ashenden, a tech analyst at research group CCS Insight, says Zoom did well to swiftly address security issues earlier in the year. "Clearly these had an impact on Zoom's perception among some business users, and we saw multiple organisations banning its use as a result," she says.
研究集团CCS Insight的技术分析师安吉拉·阿申登说：“Zoom在今年早些时候能够迅速解决安全问题，这方面他们做得很好。但是很明显，这对一些商业用户对Zoom的看法有了影响，我们看到许多组织因此禁止使用Zoom。”
"But equally, Zoom responded quickly, and has doubled down its investment and commitment to resolving these issues. It's done a great job on this front actually."
“但是相应的，Zoom做出了迅速反应，将它的投资和投入翻了一番来解决这个问题。实际上，在这方面它做得很好。”
What is certain is that thanks to Zoom's operational structure it was able to cope with the huge increase in user numbers back in the spring.
The firm operates a cloud computing-based system, with the main processing work being done at computer server centres around the world.
可以肯定的是，得益于于Zoom的运营结构，它能够应对春季用户数量的激增。Zoom系统，主要处理工作在世界各地的计算机服务器中心进行。在疫情大流行之前，该公司运行着一个基于云计算的系统，主要的数据处理工作在全球的计算机服务器中心进行。
Prior to the pandemic the company was focused on its long-term growth, so it already had 19 such centres that it owned. This was more than it needed for user numbers at that point. In addition, Ms Bawa says it had contracts in place to allow it to use "tens of thousands of other servers in five hours [notice]".
So when user numbers skyrocketed, Zoom was able to quickly expand into this additional capacity.
在新冠疫情流行前，该公司就重点着眼专注于其长期发展，因此它已经拥有19个这样的中心，远远超过了当时用户所需的数量。此外，巴瓦女士说，Zoom已经签订了合同，允许它在“五个小时内[通知]数万台其他服务器”。因此，当用户数量激增时，Zoom能够迅速扩展到所需的容量。
Many of those new users were members of the public keeping in touch with family and friends during lockdowns, but in the world of work it hasn't just been about simple video calls or conferencing.
In fact, Zoom has been used for everything from job interviews, to making people redundant, to office Christmas parties. And people starting new jobs from home have used the platform to try to get to know their new colleagues.
许多新用户是在疫情封锁期间与家人和朋友保持联系的大众，但在职场上，Zoom不仅仅是简单的视频通话或会议，事实上，它已用于工作面试，进行裁员，甚至举行办公室圣诞节派对。而在家中开始新工作的人，也已经使用该平台来结识新同事。
03
Zoom疲劳，惧怕视频，怎么克服？
Looking ahead, Ms Bawa says that video conferencing is here to stay because most of us will continue to work from home, at least part of the time.
"The future of work has forever changed," she says. "More and more of our customers say that they will go to a hybrid model - some folks told us there will be defined periods of working from home, maybe two or three days a week.
"Others will do it by project type. So if I'm working on my own presentation I would do it at home. But, say, if you are an investment banker working with a team on an important deal, you would all go into the office."
展望未来，巴瓦女士说，视频会议将继续存在，因为我们大多数人将继续居家工作，起码是一段时间内。”
“工作的未来永远改变了。”她说。“越来越多的客户说他们将采用混合模式——人们会有规定的在家工作时间，也许每周两到三天。其他人将根据工作项目类型来决定如何工作。所以，如果我要进行展示，那么我会在家中完成。不过，如果你是一个有着大项目，与团队合作的投资银行家，那么你们会在办公室线下办公。
While working from home is a joy for many people, some of us still dread having to participate in video conferences.
Business psychologist Stuart Duff, a partner at Pearn Kandola, says he has helped a number of clients better cope with them.
“虽然在家工作对许多人来说是快乐的，但我们中有些人仍然胆怯于参加视频会议。Pearn Kandola的合伙人，商业心理学家斯图尔特·达夫说，他已经帮助许多客户更好地应对这种心理。
"The overuse of video conferencing is now called 'Zoom fatigue'," he says. "There are four main ways of communicating - by text, video, phone call, and face-to-face.
"Nothing replaces face-to-face. Video is the next best thing, but not when used nine-to-five, or for every meeting."
“视频会议的过度使用现在被称为‘Zoom疲劳’，”他说，“沟通主要可以通过四种方式进行——短信、视频、打电话还有面对面的交流。没有什么能够替代面对面的交流，视频可能是剩下的选项中最好的，前提是不在正常工作时间中一直使用或者每一次开会时都用。”
Mr Duff says that companies should try to make video meetings less structured, and that more time should be built in for allowing informal chit-chat. When it does come down to formal meetings by video, he helps his clients to be more assertive.
达夫表示公司应该努力使视频会议不那么严肃，应该多进行不那么正式的闲谈。而当确实需要进行正式的视频会议时，他会帮助他的客户们显得更自信。
Fellow business psychologist Jess Baker also helps clients cope better with video meetings.
"Being prepared enables you to feel more confident," she says. "Prepare for each call as you would for a meeting with your manager [in person].
"Then make eye contact with the camera and regardless of how many people are on the call, just imagine it's just one person that you are speaking directly to. This may feel silly to you at first but your audience will be impressed."
商业心理学家杰西·贝克同样帮助客户更好地应对视频会议。她说：“做好准备可以使你感到更加自信。” “为每次通话做准备，就像和你的经理面对面开会一样。然后与摄像头进行眼神交流，无论通话中有多少人，只要想象一个直接交谈的对象。这一开始可能听起来很蠢，但这样做往往能够给观众留下深刻印象。”
Ms Bawa says that people working from home need to make sure they take breaks.
Ms Bawa agrees that the overuse of video calls and conferences can be a problem for some people. "When people talk about Zoom fatigue, the struggle is real, but it is not Zoom's fault.
"You have to build wellness into your life, and take breaks [from the screen]," she says. "The pandemic hit Zoom employees as much as it did everyone else, and we have the same issues.
巴瓦女士表示在家工作的人们需要确保时不时的休息。
她同意视频通话和视频会议的过度使用已经成为一些人的问题。“当人们谈论Zoom疲劳时，他们是真的为之感到痛苦，但这并不是Zoom的错。”
“你必须在生活中注意自己的身心健康，时不时地把自己从屏幕前移开，休息一下。”她说，“疫情同样影响了Zoom的员工们，我们有着相同的问题。”
"For us focusing on the mental health of our employees has been very important."
Zoom's basic service is free, but firms can then pay so that meetings can run for an unlimited period of time, and have more participants, plus other features.
Ms Bawa says that for all Zoom's commercial success this year there hasn't been a celebratory mood at the company, because of the pandemic.
"It has been a sombre time. You don't feel like celebrating when so many people around the world are suffering."
“对我们来说，关注员工们的心理健康非常重要。”
Zoom的基本服务是免费的，但公司们可以付费，这样会议可以无限期运行，并且有更多的参会者，还有其他付费功能。
巴瓦女士说由于疫情，今年Zoom在商业上取得了巨大的成功，但公司上下都没有庆祝的心情。
“这是一个阴暗的时刻。当世界上有那么多的人正在煎熬时，你不会有庆祝的心情。”
编译 | 陈雨昕 靳晓乐 高嘉忆
排版｜高嘉忆
审核｜赵寒旭
