Fireworks light up the sky during the National Day celebrations held in Singapore on Aug. 9, 2020. Photo:Xinhua

Zoom Video Communications has opened a new data center in Singapore, its first in Southeast Asia, it said on Tuesday.

Use of Zoom's video conferencing services has surged as huge numbers of people across the world work from home due to coronavirus, but the company has also come under fire for privacy and security issues.

The Singapore data center, through which the company's users in Southeast Asia can connect, brings its total to 18 sites globally.

The company also plans to hire more Singapore employees. Smith cites a 65-fold increase in users of its free services in Singapore, with a tripling of paying customers since January. Since March, 400 schools in the city state have been using the platform.

Singapore briefly suspended the use of Zoom by teachers in April after "very serious incidents" in the first week of coronavirus lockdown, including an incident that involved obscene images appearing on screens during a geography lesson.