As social distancing becomes the order of the day as part of efforts to minimize the spread of coronavirus pandemic, people are seeking ways to keep their businesses, friendship and family life intact. Online tools have offered platforms of interactions that guarantee wide distances between people and yet fulfilling meetings, bonding and association.

Among all the apps offering teleconference related services, Zoom has become a popular choice. As more people seek virtual alternatives to their deprived freedom to meet and interact, Zoom has become a darling option because it gives users better choices than other apps offering virtual conferencing services.

Though Apple’s Facetime is popular, Zoom is currently ranking above it in the iOS store, according to the data from analytic company App Annie. It has been gaining more users at the wake of the outbreak of coronavirus and that has shot its market value up. The stock sells for 58 times revenue, compared to a price-to-sales ratio of 8 for Microsoft, and has been gaining since February while other stocks are plummeting.

In 2020, Zoom Video Communication has soared over 85%, and has become a top choice for investors who are looking for a safe haven from the coronavirus storm. In February, the teleconference company’s stock upped 45% to maintain stable growth while other stocks plunged. On Thursday last week, the ZM stock went up another 7% to close regular trading at $125.00 a share.

The company’s Q4 revenue jumped 78% with 2019 sales up 88% to $622.7 million. According to data published by Nasdaq, Zoom’s adjusted quarterly earnings of $0.15 a share trampled the $0.08 estimated by the market, and has now blown away Nasdaq projection by an average of 340% in the trailing four quarters.

Also, its full fiscal year operating cash flow skyrocketed close to 200% to $151.9 million, as its client base expands. Zoom ended the year 2019, with about 82,000 clients and with more than 10 employees, a 61% increase from 2018. The company said 641 customers contributed more than $100,000 in trailing 12 months revenue which marked an 86% surge.

The unprecedented growth has come as a result of many using Zoom for weddings, bar mitzvahs and mediation sessions. As schools closed, teachers and students turned to Zoom for classes and so did many others who needed to stay in business. Many others use it to make parties and virtually stay in touch with family and friends.

But Zoom won people’s hearts for some peculiar reasons that many other players in the teleconference business can’t give.

“The usability and the reliability of Zoom is what has led to this incredible adoption, combined with honesty, the generosity of Eric and his willingness to open it up especially to schools,” Zoom CFO Kelly Steckelberg told CNBC.

Zoom founder and CEO Eric Yuan received a lot of applause for altering the original design that gives free service only to 100 participants for 40 minutes. Schools and organizations have cashed in on the adjustment that has allowed thousands of people to hook into conferences running far beyond 40 minutes free of charge. The gesture was seen as part of efforts by the company to help people in the face of COVID-19, pandemic, and has spurred thousands of users to download the app. Over 90% downloads between February and March.

Moreover, Zoom is available for Android and laptops, unlike its rival, Facetime that is exclusive to iOS and available only to iPhone users. Zoom has other features that include the ability to upload pictures or videos to create a virtual background. That feature has been notably fun and enticing that other companies like Microsoft said they are going to copy it in its Teams service.

However, as Zoom keeps soaring even in the face of fierce competition with popular names like GoToMeeting and Skype as well as Google Hangouts and Microsoft Teams, many are still worried that its pace may be forced to slow down at the end of the coronavirus pandemic.

But Nasdaq estimated that Zoom’s 2021 full-year fiscal revenue will hit between $905 million to $915.o million, which overrides the pre-earning estimate of $854.6 million. The high-end would represent 47% growth from 2020.

Zoom’s video is also expected to crush the current estimate of $0.27 per share to hit between $0.42 and $0.45 per share, and would mark a 29% jump from 2020, on the high side.

Stifel analysts told clients: “The global coronavirus epidemic will undoubtedly drive awareness and adoption of the company’s video conferencing platform, and we expect this environment to further enable the company to post industry-leading growth rates.”

Before now, climate advocates and those who see automobile emission as an environmental threat and have tried to cut their movement by holding meetings and conferences online, have been instrumental to Zoom’s market performance, as the company has established an edge over others and manages to keep all those who get on board. It is believed that post-coronavirus will yield the same result; Zoom is likely going to introduce more enticements to help its lovers to stay in love.

I believe in God, I believe there is God and I equally believe that despite all our knowledge and capacity for great inventions, there is a whole lot more about the universe that we don’t know and will never know.

So why do men carry the aura of God when we have so many limitations in a universe that existed before we were even aware of its existence?

Why is there so much evil and injustice in the world perpetrated by men and nations with superior advantage?

And so Coronavirus came to give us a little wake-up call.

A check at the Christian bible, in the book of Genesis 6 verse 5 and 6….it said something very interesting about the human nature:

5 – The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. 6 – So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart.

Imagine that the Creator of the universe himself was heartbroken at the sight of the terrible acts of men.

Coronavirus code named Covid-19 is currently ravaging the world. It is so bad that in a few weeks of spreading fast around the world, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has declared that the world is now in recession.

Economic activities around the world have come to a grinding halt, businesses have shut down completely, hundreds of thousands of jobs are being lost all around the world and there are countries currently witnessing a complete lock-down.

Can you imagine that? A little jog around town is now a crime in some countries. It is now a complete stay-at-home galore.

But there is something honorable and admirable about the nature of Covid-19. The kind of nature that would have delighted God to find in us, the kind of nature that would have made the planet Earth a great place to dwell for every living being.

It is the egalitarian nature of the virus.

The virus has displayed perfect fairness in its modus operandi.

It has no respect for gender, no respect for title or class, no respect for religious beliefs, no respect for colour of skin, no respect for class or hierarchy, the virus is not concerned with whether a country is classified as developed, developing or underdeveloped – it just deals with everyone and every country that come its way.

Suddenly, the might and power of the United States of America has been demystified by an invisible micro-organism. Within a period of 3 weeks, the number of infected has risen to more than 130,000 and more than 2,000 Americans have died from the virus. The excellent economic achievements of the ever boastful Donald Trump for more than 3 years were completely wiped out in a matter of days.

Now I see a slump on Trump’s shoulders whenever he is addressing the American people. Covid19 really trumped him.

Italy, having one of the best healthcare systems in the world has been especially beaten hard by the virus. More than 10,000 people have now died from the disease and are still counting.

Developed countries like Germany and the United Kingdom with excellent healthcare systems and role models for many countries of the world are currently in disarray over the unrelenting Covid-19 attacks. Thousands of Germans and Britons have contacted the virus and the figures keep rising every day.

The Prime Minister of the UK, Boris Johnson, has contacted the virus and Germany’s Minister for Finance of over 10 years, Mr Thomas Schaefer, has committed suicide due to worry over how to cope with the economic fallout from the coronavirus.

This Covid-19 has no respect at all.

My country, Nigeria, is currently under the siege of the coronavirus like most countries of the world. Here too, the virus has been consistent with its egalitarian nature.

The Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, and some staff within the Presidency have tested positive to the virus. Nigerian state Governors are testing positive to the virus, top legislative figures have tested positive to the virus. Influential, wealthy and powerful figures are testing positive to the virus.

Even the Nigerian medical Doctors that the infected look up to for treatment in this pandemic are testing positive to the virus as unfolding at University College Hospital, Ibadan.

But the Nigerian case is much more peculiar.

The healthcare system is so horrible that Doctors went on strike in the middle of a pandemic. Billions of dollars that could have worked miracles in the healthcare sector were lavished and diverted to private pockets.

Now the people responsible for the rot in the healthcare sector look up to that sector for salvation.

Education has been grossly underfunded for decades and has led to the emergence of poorly educated and uneducated millions of Nigerians. That lack of informed education is the reason youths in Katsina burnt down a police station all because the police were trying to protect them from contacting the virus through religious congregations.

People are being asked to stay put at home till further notice amidst impending lock-down but there is no power supply to make staying at home tolerable. Billions of dollars invested in the power sector for decades were recklessly siphoned by greedy and evil minded people in positions of power.

Crude oil now sells like palm oil in the international market and it leaves much to wonder how the vultures in the Nigerian government used to feeding on sumptuous oil money will cope with the new unfavorable economic and financial reality.

Karma is here now. All facilitated by Covid-19.

The rich, powerful and unconcerned citizens of Nigeria will in one way or the other reap the harvest of what they have sown for decades. Even the innocent will partake somehow, unfortunately.

The number of infected people worldwide is now more than 700,000 while the number of deaths is over 33,000 from the coronavirus.

Hopefully, the world will discover a vaccine or a cure for the virus soon enough. That appears like the only way the world will get some respite from the coronavirus siege.

But for now, the lessons are ringing loud – that no matter how big or small we are, no matter how powerful or insignificant we are, no matter the stockpile of sophisticated weapons and scientific/technological knowledge accumulation, we are nothing compared to the force of nature.

In crisis like this, the seed of love we have sown through good governance and charity to one another is what can give us hope – nothing else will.

The world will learn that lesson well. Nigeria, especially, will learn that lesson forcefully.