How Virtual Do We Want Our Future to Be?

This article appears in the September edition of the Zoom Newsletter

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed the lives and behavior of people across the globe. We have had to adapt to different ways of shopping, learning, socializing, working, celebrating, doing business, and much more.

This report, prepared and commissioned by Zoom, based on survey data and findings provided by Qualtrics Research, focuses on the impact that video communications have had on our day-to-day lives. We explored a variety of use cases for video communications and how they were used and perceived in ten different countries that spanned the globe. The survey results acknowledge the extraordinary challenges the world has faced and how video communications have helped maintain some semblance of normalcy and continuity of life’s important activities. 

Although there’s been a high level of appreciation for this alternative to “in-person” living, over one year into this shift, we’re now wondering - what’s next? How much of this virtual life will we want to keep beyond the pandemic?

This report seeks to capture the current sentiment toward video communications from the perspective of everyday folks - employees, parents, students, teachers, consumers, and everyone in between.

Key takeaways

• A large majority of those surveyed believe that even after COVID-19 concerns subside, video communications are here to stay.

• Celebrations, business, and education were the activities survey respondents most frequently transitioned from in-person to virtual.

• A large majority of respondents indicated that video communications were valuable for staving off feelings of loneliness and isolation.

• A majority of respondents believe that working in a hybrid environment will allow employees to fit work around their life - and they welcome that change.

• Very few respondents think activities will be virtual-only forever. But the majority felt that our lives will include a balance of in-person and virtual components for most activities in the future.

How video communications have helped us?

For meetings, education, receiving medical care and information, celebrating special occasions, conducting business, and much more, we’ve really needed video communications this past year. Our survey results indicate that video conferencing was widely used for celebrations and healthcare/telehealth. But there was also broad use of video communications for music and entertainment, socializing, birthdays, holidays, conferences and events, and to keep ourselves fit and calm. By April 2020, the number of daily meeting participants on Zoom topped 300 million.

Hybrid working is overwhelmingly preferred to in-person-only

Most countries heavily favored a hybrid business environment, with about two-thirds of survey takers preferring a mix of virtual and in-person working environments. Many cited the fact that they didn’t have to leave their homes and could stay safer virtually, but the main downsides were the lack of a personal connection as well as a poor technical connection or other tech issue. When asked about the future of business travel, most countries expect to travel for business purposes about the same or less than they did before the pandemic. 

Country-specific insights

• France and India showed a higher preference for in-person-only business appointments going forward.

• 14% of Japanese respondents and 12% of Indian respondents said they’d prefer business to be done completely virtual.

• Singapore, Brazil, and Australia showed the most enthusiasm for a future involving a mix of in-person and video communications for business.

• Respondents from Japan mostly believed business travel will look much different, with 79% expecting less travel for work going forward.

Many of the respondents’ sentiments favored a hybrid approach to business, and we wanted to be clear about what that means and what particular aspects were so appealing. We asked: Thinking about the largely virtual business environment of today, what do you imagine a hybrid workplace to look like?

Here are some of those responses:

“Now that many people have experienced home working, and companies have found that they can operate efficiently with remote working, it will become the norm and companies will be able to spend less on renting office space and overheads.”

“I think that it will be possible to choose a work style that suits each person, which will lead to the solution of the problem of children just waiting at home and the problem of turnover due to family circumstances.”

“Flexible office space for physical presence at work; more flexible physical presence working hours as much takes place digitally anyway and physical presence is not tied to the same locations through video communication.”

“It would be great! It would have everyone's safety, and mainly, it would reduce the costs of any company. Acting in a virtual way, we would have more practicality and comfort to work, helping our mental health a lot. “

“Some situations allow remote work and are even more practical. This helps to avoid coming to the workplace. We can therefore limit fuel consumption and protect the environment more.”

The results of this research strongly suggest that video communications will play a significant role in our lives going forward. Perhaps the really interesting part of all this, however, is what happens next. What are businesses large and small doing to meet their customers - and potential customers - where they want to be?

The technology that we’ve trusted to keep us connected personally and professionally through the pandemic is more than simply “pandemic technology.” Reliable video communications like Zoom are a way of life.