COVID-19 Affects Businesses Around the World
The Novel Coronavirus: How COVID-19 Affects Businesses
Coronavirus first appeared in December 2019, and it became a pandemic in March 2020. During its time in the world, the COVID-19 has seriously impacted various sectors. The business has been on one of the worst receiving ends of the outbreak. In this article, we discuss how COVID-19 affects businesses around the world.
International Trade
Because of the lockdown and strict regulations against the movement of people from one country to another, international trades have gone down a huge margin. Countries have tried their best to avoid receiving and sending stuff, as long as they are not of basic necessity. This has negatively affected the economy of many countries who are mostly dependent on trade.
Companies are Closing Down
As countries are tightening the lockdowns, companies are closing their gates. This has interrupted work, and businesses around the world are losing customers. Some offices have tried to continue with work from home.
The closure has mostly affected people running SMEs who don’t have an online shop.
Stock Market is Bouncing
Companies are limiting their operations, and the general public is being more focused on the diseased part of things. Thus, it is only natural that the Stock market is on a downhill.
However, in Asia, the bull is returning, a sign of recessing coronavirus cases in Europe. Anyway, the USA is yet to face its hardest week in the outbreak, so we can say that the stocks in that part of the globe are still going to be uneven for some time.
Some companies, however, are Benefiting
We take an example of Zoom, one of the leading video conference sites. As online seminars and classes are being more apparent these days, the website is getting new followers every day. The platform has gained 2.2 million active users already in four months in 2020. The number is very high when compared to 1.99 million users in 2019. Furthermore, the company’s shares went up 40% in April.
How COVID-19 Affects Businesses: Winners vs. Losers During the Pandemic
As we said before, companies have been both, shutting down, and benefiting during the outbreak. Here, we look at the industries that fit into either of the categories of ‘winners’ and ‘losers.’
Winners During the Coronavirus Outbreak
These sectors have increased business during the Coronavirus outbreak:
Ecommerce
In March, Amazon decided to hire 100,000 new employees and provide raises to its existing workforce to handle the demands during the COVID-19 outbreak. This stat alone shows how the online business industry is booming during the time people aren’t willing to go outside their homes, and human contact is risky.
Logistics and Delivery Services
With the e-commerce industry growing extremely big, it is only natural that logistics and home delivery services are starting to have an increasing demand for work. In most cases, delivery services monitor the temperature of their workforce every day to ensure only healthy people are partaking in the process. On the other hand, some services provide extra packaging on the items and PPIs to their employees.
Video Conferencing, Streaming, and Online Gaming Services
For the video conferencing part, we have already discussed the stats of Zoom. On the other hand, Netflix’s subscribers in the US and Canadian region is increasing by 3.8%, which is higher than the previously predicted 1.6%. Furthermore, other popular streaming websites like YouTube and Amazon prime also are getting more visitors than before.
Steam, the biggest video game provider platform in the world, registered more than 19.7 million concurrent players in March, and that’s the biggest number till now. Games like CS Go and Dota 2 are also registering records for the number of participants.
Pharmaceuticals
The pharma industry is sure to benefit from the Coronavirus outbreak. The need for medicines, masks, and PPEs is high, and again the sector has gotten several sponsors for helping find the vaccine for the pandemic. As we are talking about this, we should also point out that the healthcare industry is also getting benefitted financially. Well, it is all worth it for the hard work the medical workers are putting during this time.
How COVID-19 Affects Businesses: Losers During the Outbreak
Tourism
With people sitting inside homes and international travel is banned in almost every part of the world, it is self-explanatory. The tourism industry and others related to it, like hospitality, are going to lose a lot during this time.
Aviation and Transportation
Flight schedules are very much scarce in the world right now. Stats say that the global airline industry may face more than $250 billion in revenues during this time.
Similarly, public land and sea transportation sectors are also going to take a hit during the COVID-Outbreak. Some operators may even be on the verge of bankruptcy. The same goes for trains.
Traditional Retail and Groceries
Brick and Mortar businesses where people have to travel to buy physically have been closed. Both people’s unwillingness to move outside and the store owner’s reluctance to take any risk have contributed to this. This has weighed heavily, especially on households in relatively less developed countries where a small shop is the only source of income.
Other businesses dependent on people visiting them, like cinema halls, restaurants, fun parks, shopping malls, etc., all are going through a bad time.
Sports and Entertainment
Biggest soccer leagues in the world, including the Premier League, La Liga, etc. have been closed. The same goes for major events in every sport, including cricket, tennis, etc. These closures are set to cost millions of dollars to the sports industries, and some professional teams have been cut down on the salary of their players to survive financially.
The world’s most prominent sports entertainment event, WWE WrestleMania, was done in closed doors with no audience. Their record attendance was in 2016, where they sold 101,763 tickets.
Conclusion
Coronavirus has had adverse effects on the world of business, but some industries have managed to benefit during the times. The economy of various countries has gone down, and the stock markets are bouncing. This sets to continue in the coming days, especially when it’s still unknown when the virus will subside, and things will come back to normal.
This was it for how COVID-19 affects businesses. You can contact us directly if you have any inquiries. Stay tuned for some more business news regarding COVID-19.
