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As the travel and restaurant industries suffer during the coronavirus, the tech industry is flourishing. People are predominantly working from home, and technology plays a huge role in making that possible. However, not every technological enterprise is flourishing. In this article, we will look at 6 winners and losers from the coronavirus pandemic for the tech industry.
As the coronavirus pandemic has forced people to socially distance themselves. They are no longer meeting with one another, and face to face conversations have become nearly impossible. However, video-conferencing softwares have made keeping in touch much easier. Not only this but with working from home becoming a ground reality for some time, apps like Zoom and Microsoft teams have made working from home much easier. Face-to-face meetings have been replaced by online zoom meetings. Physical presentations have been replaced by screen-sharing on various video-conferencing platforms. And with the pandemic likely to stay for a while, this may become the new norm. These companies and software will continue to grow in popularity and are definite winners from the pandemic.
Read: Zoom Company Story
The e-commerce industry was on the rise even before the pandemic hit. With the rise of the digital world, shopping online was gaining momentum as people found it very convenient. Moreover, as the pandemic hit, these online stores and e-commerce websites rose in popularity even more. The likes of Amazon and eBay experienced unprecedented growth. This could be seen by the fact that Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos is set to become the world’s first-ever trillionaire. Facebook recently launched its own e-commerce platform by the name of Facebook Shops as well. These online stores or e-commerce platforms are guaranteed winners from COVID-19. This is because as every other activity shifts online, these platforms enable users to shop and trade conveniently from their homes.
Read: Facebook Shops: Business storefronts or Groundwork for libra?
Collaborative tools are those office tools that allow multiple people to work collaboratively on a single document or piece of work. These include tools like google docs, google slides, and so on. In an increasingly digital and technological age, these tools are coming in handy, especially during the pandemic. Whereas office workers used to occupy cubicles and hold meetings to edit documents, simultaneous editing through collaboration software has made their lives much easier. Hence, they are obvious winners from COVID-19’s outbreak.
Read: Is working from home a part of the “new normal”?
Those software and tools designed to simplify daily office tasks are losing out due to the pandemic. As more people work from home, these gadgets and tools are not being used, and hence, their demand is decreasing. These include card scanners, meeting room gadgets, and so on. These everyday office tools and gadgets are going out of demand and losing out due to the virus.
Office-owned machinery is probably at the biggest loss here. Not only are they not being used, but their maintenance is not being done either. Proper and regular maintenance of this machinery is necessary to make sure they do not become obsolete. With most of the staff working from home, these machines would not be looked after properly. These include computer monitors, photocopy machines and printers, and even projectors. People have shifted to more remote options like laptops etc. and moved away from these items. Hence, they are losers from the coronavirus outbreak.
As traveling around the world has come to a halt, many traveling tech giants have suffered as well. Airbnb and Uber are just two examples of this, with both being forced to lay off workers. Moreover, entire airlines have been grounded due to the lack of travel around the world. This has led to the decrease in any tech-related to the travel industry, with rental car giant Hertz declaring bankruptcy as well. The industry is probably the biggest loser resulting from the pandemic.
Read: How the Coronavirus has affected Travel Industry jobs
As we analyzed a few technology winners and losers from COVID-19, we must keep in mind it does not take long to change it around. Innovation and adaptation are two key features companies must adopt to become winners rather than losers.
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