Zoom can now handle one million participants at a time

Zoom just announced that webinar calls can now support . This comes after various political groups used the videoconferencing platform to raise money for Vice President Kamala Harris’ reelection campaign, often hosting calls with .

The company now offers different tiers to accommodate large events. Customers can choose from webinars that offer a maximum capacity of 10,000, 50,000, 100,000, 250,000, 500,000 and, of course, 1 million attendees. These are one-time webinar packages that come with support from Zoom’s event services team to ensure a “professional, engaging experience” for everyone.

“Now event organizers have the flexibility and ability to create truly interactive experiences at scale like never before, as well as the ability to purchase large, one-time webinars,” said Smita Hashim, chief product officer at Zoom.

While it was recently used for political fundraising, Zoom envisions a future where these large virtual events will be commonplace in businesses, entertainment, and the public sector. For example, the company says that celebrities and artists can use these webinar capabilities to host fan meet-and-greets and other types of virtual events.

However, these events don’t come cheap. Booking a one-time webinar for a million people will be . That’s actually a good deal, since a webinar for 10,000 people will cost $9,000, which is almost a dollar per person.

Before this change, Zoom only officially supported up to 100,000 participants. However, according to reports Bloomberg indicates that the company has recently changed course towards .

It all started in July, when Win with Black Women hosted a Zoom call with more than 40,000 participants that raised $1.5 million for Harris’ campaign. It was followed by , with 190,000 participants, and , with 164,000 participants.

This could be a lucrative new revenue stream for Zoom. After all, it wasn’t that long ago that the company’s stock was selling for $560 a share before falling to around $60 a share. This steep decline was to be expected as the world moved away from virtual meetings and began venturing outside again.