The tech that will benefit in 2020
What does the future have in store for us? If you were to ask your younger self what 2020 would look like, what would you have said? Spaceships like the Jetsons or flying cars such as the ones predicted by Blade Runner?
We’re not into the business of predicting stuff, but we closely follow most of the big tech companies and we’re always enthusiastic about reading new studies and eager to understand what the future has in store for us. Due to the new coronavirus outbreak, the technologies that were predicted to “boom” this year might be postponed.
It’s still hard to predict when the pandemic will be over, and when we’ll be able to leave our home offices. In a time when everything leads us to believe in an economic downturn, there are former niche markets that will rise from the pandemic and profit like never before.
Here are our educated guesses on the technology companies that will benefit the most by tackling the challenges created by Covid-19.
Food delivery
Although the restaurant industry is taking a big hit with the forced quarantine, food delivery companies are outperforming the market, since they’re the solution for the people who still want to “eat out” while staying in.
Delivery Hero, for instance, has seen its market capitalization rise by 6% since the new coronavirus outbreak, which is a great deal, since most stock companies are losing massively – FAMGA has lost $460B in a couple weeks.
Collaboration software
Collaboration software companies have also seen a big rise in demand after most companies closed their offices and sent their people home – Microsoft Teams, for example, had more than 12 million new users in just one week.
More than ever, we need tools to work together and the companies behind the best collaboration software are naturally getting more and more attention from companies who used archaic programs to plan, communicate and manage their teams. Zoom, the videoconferencing software, almost doubled its stock price since January 31st, the day World Health Organization declared global health emergency.
Additionally, these types of software are also used in online education as a bridge between the teachers and students.
Virtual fairs
The restriction on big gatherings of people is also a challenge that some companies, that require these types of initiatives to network and close deals, are facing.
Thankfully, there are solutions such as the ones provided by Easy Virtual Fair, a Spanish startup that helps set up virtual fairs in their online platform. We believe this industry will emerge during the outbreak since it’s the only option to hold events nowadays.
Telehealth
In times like these, it’s easy to forget that other diseases and “body malfunctions” keep occurring. The need to stay at home might be an opportunity for startups and companies who bridge physicians and patients in videoconference appointments.
Streaming & gaming
Staying at home might be a synonym of more time to spend with your loved ones. For some of you (and me) that’s also time to binge some Netflix and HBO series and defeat some n00bs.
More time spent at home means more space for entertainment streaming and gaming services are seeing a rise in their active users (link in Portuguese).
FYI: For those of you who are quarantining, but want to keep watching shows or movies with your friends or family, you can always use Netflix Party to binge watch together (here’s how).
Online goods and eCommerce
Supermarkets have been putting an extra effort on their eCommerce platforms this last couple of months. With the raise of the coronavirus outbreak, this might become the new way of getting groceries delivered, even after we recover from the current situation.
This is also applied to the retail companies who want to survive the following months – they may want to rely on online platforms to keep their businesses up and running.
Some of the abovementioned solutions might have been overlooked by a big portion of the population, but some of them might keep good market performance after the quarantine’s over.
