The COVID-19 epidemic and total lockout in many countries have dramatically, initially for a short time, changed the trends and habits of most people, which also affected a sharp turn in demand and supply for goods and services. At the beginning of 2021, it will be possible to summarize the first results, whether these trends turned out to be temporary or we all need to live with them.
It was clear from the outset that the major changes would affect four areas that directly affect consumers: entertainment, food, transportation, and remote work.
Online entertainment
The shift to remote work has sparked a rise in interest in the cinema and online entertainment industry. For example, people who were forced to stay at home began to watch more movies: the use of media content through the Netflix multimedia platform quadrupled due to the active transition to remote work amid the coronavirus.
Alphabet Inc, one of Google’s subsidiaries, announced that it had raised the price of its YouTube TV online service by 30% to $ 64.99 a month, citing an increase in content costs.
The real boom has occurred in the field of online gambling. This was largely made possible by the desire of online casinos such as Baccarat casino games to integrate new technologies into the gambling process. Thus, the most significant change was the increased popularity of live broadcasts – games with a “live dealer”.
Broadcasts are conducted from a special room in the land-based casino. At the same time, players can participate in such games from anywhere in the world, just having any gadget and a good Internet signal is enough.
Food delivery
Delivery Club experts point out that the experience of countries in which the situation with the number of infected with COVID-19 is recognized as critical (USA, Italy, Spain, Russia) shows that their residents are starting to use delivery of both groceries and ready-made food significantly more often.
The use of delivery services is widely seen as a way to minimize the number of contacts compared to going to a store or restaurant, the company believes.
Transport
For prevention purposes, many residents of large cities have abandoned public transport in favor of taxis and car-sharing, and someone has decided to completely exclude travel. Thus, the New York authorities report that in the city, subway trips have decreased by almost a third against the background of the coronavirus, and among students and schoolchildren – by 60%.
Online taxi Uber decided to provide its services not only for car transportation but also for public minibusses, a seat in which can be booked so far only in certain US states – while selling its application to transport companies. The close interaction of passenger companies and online taxis should convince passengers to abandon their cars, and cities to reduce insurance costs or to transfer existing buses to more profitable routes.
Remote work
Among the top winners of the lockdown are companies whose services are directly focused on providing a “stay-at-home economy” as more people and other companies will experiment with telecommuting more often.
All popular video conferencing providers have experienced this firsthand, especially the Zoom Video Communications platform from Cisco Systems. Cybersecurity companies such as Okta and Zscaler in the United States did not stand aside either.
Telecom providers such as Qualcomm and Verizon Communications have benefited indirectly from the massive shift to telecommuting. Their strategy was to actively develop 5G technology during the quarantine months, as well as provide customers with high speeds of Internet connections.
