IT vs Corona: Fight or Die

According to experts from the American investment company Bridgewater, because of coronavirus, the companies’ losses around the world can reach $12 trillion. During the period of total lockdown, the companies that work in the field of tourism, aviation, sales, automotive industry, and technology have been suffering heavy damage.

The first to taste the crisis were two leading economies of the world – China and America. Chinese companies were the first to suspend the consumption of foreign goods due to the virus that hit the country. This has a significant impact on the supplying companies. First of all, on American technology companies, because of the tight connection between Silicon Valley and China. 

What consequences do we have today?

• The cancellation of all high-tech events, the total losses from which is about 1 billion dollars (for air carriers, hotels, restaurants and transport companies), excluding the profit of organizers. 
• Facebook has suspended production of Oculus Quest due to difficulties with the supply of components.
• Apple has warned that it will not be able to quickly repair the breakage due to the lack of supplies from China.
• Xiaomi, Lenovo, Huawei, Asus, Oppo, Vivo, Realme, ZTE have suspended production and shipments.
• Nintendo has announced a delay in the production and delivery of new console models (New Animal Crossing and Ring Fit Adventure).

The global trend to reduce the supply of electronics components is already noticeable. Absolutely all manufacturers will suffer during the period of lockdown and suspension of supplies. According to the TrendForce  data, coronavirus affects technology supplies in the following way:

• TV deliveries have decreased by 4.5%;
• the game consoles are ordered 10% less;
• the supply of smartphones decreased by almost 11%;
• smart speaker device shipments decreased by 12%;
• also, laptop supplies have decreased by 12%;
• the supply of smartwatches has been reduced by 16%.

The shares of technology giants such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google have fallen in price. Under such conditions, they are taking all possible measures to minimize the damage. Their efforts are focused more on supporting employees and customers.

First and foremost, most companies have switched to remote operation. But the main thing the industry can boast of in this situation is the struggle for the purity of information.

Companies dealing with information distribution issues have received an influx of people willing to stay updated. Since the coronavirus is the most discussed topic on all sites, millions of people have turned to the Internet nosing for news about COVID-19. And it is up to companies like Google to determine whether they can find it quickly. 

The most pressing problem for companies like Google is the fight against a virus called “fake” because of the disinformation problem. Coronavirus generates clicks better than any bot, and it creates unnecessary panic. And here Internet platforms face many difficulties.

IT companies facing the consequences of pandemic are adapting to them in their own way.

Facebook:

• Provides free coronavirus advertising.
• Banned the advertising of drugs promising to cure coronavirus.
• Blocks the coronavirus fakes.

Google:

• A COVID-19 foundation has been established to cover paid sick leave and help those who cannot go to work due to the lockdown worldwide.
• Develops a site with information about coronavirus.

Microsoft:

• A service based on the Microsoft Bing search engine maps has been developed, which shows the number of infected, recovered and died of COVID-19 with the reference to a specific country or state in case of the USA.

Amazon:

• Removed more than a million ads promising to cure coronavirus.
• Removed overpriced medical masks ads.

For many companies, the current lockdown is an accelerator. They have started to work on new initiatives that attract people to the online world.

• The online gaming and app industry has grown by $150 billion, due to a record number of downloads. 
• Over a week, more than 222 million downloads were made in the App Store in China.
• The average weekly app downloads have increased by 40% (including educational apps) compared to the average for the whole 2019.
• Millions of workers and students use mobile apps to find alternative ways to replace their usual daily activities.
• The shares of New Oriental Education (an online education company in China) have risen by 17% this year.

Major sports events have been cancelled all over the world, but people continue to play sports – online now. DouYu game-centric live streaming Platform reports that search queries for games like “Honor of Kings”, “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds” and “League of Legends” have doubled. “Honor of Kings” alone was viewed 63 million times during the forced holidays, while on the holidays of 2019 it was viewed just over 31.7 million times.

To cope with the coronavirus itself, the technology companies develop all kinds of devices to ease the fate of doctors and identify symptoms of disease in the early stages.

In China, security personnel has been given augmented reality glasses capable of measuring the person’s temperature.

Israel, in turn, has developed the start-up to detect COVID-19 by the sound of a human voice.

All companies are trying to help the fight against coronavirus to a greater or lesser degree. Scheduling also does not stand aside from the problems that have affected the well-being of companies and individuals.

First and foremost, the company has secured all its employees. The entire team is self-isolated and continues to work only remotely.

To help businesses, the company offers its free services for competent testing of your digital channels. In today’s environment, when everybody goes digital and mutual assistance is extremely important, we would like to contribute to the improvement of the business climate.

The photo was taken before the quarantine

We can offer you our digital tests.

1. Audit of the site in one of the following formats: Professional testing (conducted by people with experience in usability, front-end, etc.). User testing. We will cooperate with your target audience and check how convenient they are to use your site.
2. Competitive analysis. Conclusions about the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors made by our marketers or your target audience.
3. Comparative analysis of competitors. The pros and cons of digital competitor channels compared to yours.

If you are interested in any of our tests, please contact us! 

Stay at home, take care of yourself, keep in touch with the outside world through the digital channels, and we will take care of their quality!