Zoom to set up R&D centre and hire hundreds of engineers in Singapore following pandemic-related boom in videoconferencing
- Zoom says it will open a new R&D centre in Singapore and double the capacity of its data centre in the city state, which opened in August
- The new R&D centre joins existing ones in the United States, India, and China during a pandemic-related boom in videoconferencing this year
Zoom Video Communications said on Wednesday it would expand its presence in Singapore by opening a research and development centre and will immediately hire hundreds of engineering staff for the new operations.
The videoconferencing services provider said in a statement that is also doubling its data centre capacity in the country. The San Jose, California-based company launched the Singapore data centre, its first in Southeast Asia, in August.
The company has seen a surge in users of its video conferencing service this year, with millions of workers and students using its video platform as they work and study from home due to the coronavirus-led lockdowns.
“We plan to immediately hire employees,” Velchamy Sankarlingam, president of product and engineering for Zoom, said while floating the company’s expansion plans.
Zoom said it would select the location for its new centre as pandemic-related remote-work mode subsides, adding to its existing R&D centers in the United States, India, and China.
Singapore in recent years has been ramping up its efforts to lure firms related to technology – including global players such as Facebook, Alphabet’s Google, and Chinese tech giants Tencent and Alibaba – a sector it hopes will power the city state’s economic growth.
Last month, the low-tax global business hub announced a new work visa for foreign executives of technology firms, even as it tightens broader immigration curbs to try and assuage fears over competition for jobs due to rising unemployment.