Zoom expands webinar events to 1 million people

A new update for Zoom means that it’ll now be possible to have 999,999 people around the world simultaneously shouting, “You’ve got it on mute!”

The videoconferencing company has just announced a new feature that will allow as many as 1 million people to join a single webinar, way more than the 100,000 capacity that existed before.

Now, while most regular folks are unlikely to ever need such a feature, with five or six, or maybe as many as seven people joining the average video meeting, Zoom clearly felt there was a need for offering an option where up to a million people can join. Think celebrity events, political rallies, workforce gatherings, and so on.

Event organizers can choose from a number of options according to the size of the event, with capacities set at 10K, 50K, 100K, 250K, 500K, and 1 million attendees.

“Zoom’s expanded capacity webinar offering is revolutionizing the way organizations can seamlessly connect and engage with massive audiences,” Smita Hashim, chief product officer at Zoom, said in a release. “Now event organizers have the flexibility and power to host truly interactive experiences on an unprecedented scale and the ability to purchase large single-use webinars.”

Purchase? Yes, these larger online Zoom events don’t come free. A webinar for a million people, for example, costs $100,000, while at the other end of the scale, a webinar for 10,000 people is priced at $9,000.

The package also includes analytics that will give hosts access to data on registration, attendance, and audience engagement, with the insights potentially helping to improve future webinar efforts.

Still having issues while using Zoom? Here are the most common problems with the software and how to fix them.