Coronavirus: A Curse or A Blessing?
It may have disrupted the global economy, but not all industries are suffering.
Not only create psychological distress in society, but the latest corona outbreak also brings widespread panic to economists. Besides the thousand deadly cases keep surging around the world, this virus has also paralyzed the global economy by work suspensions and supply disruption in some major countries. While the financial losses are mounting in several industries, others gain unintentional benefits and seize momentum from the epidemic.
1. Travel
The travel industry suffers worst since coronavirus first reaches media concern in the last January. Tourists are afraid of traveling to infected countries, and countries are closing their international borders to prevent virus transmission from the outside region. Consequently, travel plunges across the world, not only the one coming and going to China, but for the entire world. Hundreds of flights canceled to minimize the risk of transferring virus contamination inside airports. By far, The World Travel & Tourism Council estimates the coronavirus will lead to nearly 12–14% job loss in the current travel industry.
2. Food & Beverage
Other than the travel industry, we also witness a sharp drop in the Food & Beverage industry caused by the coronavirus outbreak. As people are questioning the safety of eating in restaurants, the F&B business has struggled to survive. Not being able to maintain fixed overheads and other expenses, many restaurants and bars have no choice left but to close their doors. All of this means that thousands of food service workers may have temporal or permanent work suspension.
3. Stock Market
The stock market is the next industry that is also going through a hard time. Stocks market are at its worst drop since 2008. Local and foreign investors are taking a step back and stay watchful during this uncertain time. Experts said that the coronavirus has brought the worst recession since World War II.
4. Streaming Services
Interest in streaming services is currently growing due to the social distancing movements. Public venues and activities are shut down to encourage people to avoid crowds and public gatherings. Consequently, a rising need for home entertainment leads to a forecast of an additional 47 Million streaming subscriptions by the end of this year. The sudden, massive entertainment demand might have successfully enlarged the subscription amounts for popular streaming platforms like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, HBO, and many more. Streaming businesses help people enjoy their stay-at-home better while increasing their revenue at the same time.
5. Social Networks
Undoubtedly, people rely more on social networks lately as they are dragged away from public interactions. The statistic shows a significant increase in all social media daily usage and user interaction. Zoom, a video conferencing platform, has soared up to become the top 10th app inside Google Play or Apps store in the past few weeks as organizations need to gather people for meetings during the work-from-home period. Zoom even expands the time and participants limit in the free subscription plan to help people connect effectively in the isolation period. For some people, the immediate success might be seen as an overnight gain, but the company’s commitment to contribute back to society is something worth acknowledging.
6. E-Commerce
The COVID-19 also provides e-commerce players a notable growth. Consumers now prefer to purchase online. They consider it is practically safer than squeezing with people in grocery stores or touching contaminated products on shelves. Although the changing behavior is not something novel to some e-commerce that has gone through the SARS crisis back in 2002, it still has a huge impact on the global e-commerce industry. As millions of people are now more dependent on online shopping, we hope it does not lead to undesired suffering and poor treatment for workers to catch up with the increasing demands.
The coronavirus pandemic is surely disastrous, but our economy does not suffer from a total collapse. It may have disrupted the global economy, but not all industries are suffering. Some businesses could still capture the opportunity to grow and keep supporting society during the crisis. Challenges are there to be tackled, yet opportunities are also available for everyone in the industries to find answers to the current problem and prepare a better plan for the future.
