Zoom has been criticised after reportedly overstating the number of customers using its service.
The popular video conferencing platform had claimed it had “more than 300 million daily users” in a blog post earlier this month, but quietly changed this figure shortly after.
According to The Verge, Zoom later edited this post, deleting the original wording and changing it to “300 million daily Zoom meeting participants” instead.
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As The Verge notes, the difference between a daily active user (DAU) and “meeting participant” is a big one, and means Zoom could have greatly over-stated the popularity of its service.
Zoom appeared to count daily meeting participants multiple times, meaning that if you took part in several Zoom meetings in one day, the company counted you more than once - whereas a DAU is only counted once each per day.
Other software providers, including Zoom rivals such as Microsoft Teams and Google Meet, use DAU as their baseline measurement, and have continually reported such figures in recent weeks.
“We are humbled and proud to help over 300 million daily meeting participants stay connected during this pandemic," Zoom said in a statement.
"In a blog post on April 22, we unintentionally referred to these participants as “users” and “people.” When we realized this error, we adjusted the wording to “participants.” This was a genuine oversight on our part.”
Zoom's popularity has skyrocketed in recent weeks as the coronavirus outbreak led to millions of people needing to work remotely.
Video conferencing tools such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet have all enjoyed a surge in user numbers, but are also now facing greater scrutiny than ever before.
Microsoft Teams reported earlier this week that it has 75 million DAU, with Google Meet claiming to add three million new users every day.
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Via The Verge
