Zoom has unveiled a significant expansion of its webinar capabilities, now offering support for up to one million simultaneous participants. This announcement comes in the wake of the platform’s increasing popularity among political organizations, particularly those fundraising for Vice President Kamala Harris’ election campaign.
These groups have successfully hosted calls with hundreds of thousands of attendees, demonstrating the demand for large-scale virtual events. To cater to this growing need for expansive online gatherings, Zoom has introduced a tiered system of webinar packages. Customers can now select from a range of maximum capacities, including 10,000, 50,000, 100,000, 250,000, 500,000, and the new pinnacle of one million attendees.
These offerings are designed as single-use webinar packages, providing flexibility for organizers of large-scale events. Importantly, these high-capacity webinar packages come with dedicated support from Zoom’s Event Services team.
Chief product officer at Zoom Smita Hashim said:
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.
The company anticipates these massive online gatherings becoming commonplace across various sectors, including enterprise, entertainment, and public domains. For instance, Zoom suggests that celebrities and entertainers could leverage these enhanced webinar capabilities to host virtual fan meet-and-greets and other interactive events.
However, the price tag for these expansive virtual gatherings is substantial. Organizing a one-time webinar for a million participants comes with a hefty $100,000 fee. Interestingly, this represents good value when compared to smaller-scale options. A webinar accommodating 10,000 attendees is priced at $9,000, which translates to nearly a dollar per person.
Until recently, the platform’s official support maxed out at 100,000 attendees for a single event. However, a recent report by Bloomberg suggests that this change was precipitated by a specific demand: the need to accommodate large-scale political fundraising events.
