Digital Trend: COVID-19 Is Affecting Big Tech Companies

Millions of people across the world are feeling the effect of the Coronavirus outbreak. There is the plummeting of the stock market, lacking supplies of essential items in stores, cancelations of small and large events, adjusting school classes, and so on. But some effects of the situation are less apparent. Here are some of the ways the COVID-19 virus outbreak can affect us primarily in months to come, specifically in the world of technology.

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The Change In Technological Needs

The Coronavirus is either the success or the failure of a business, depending on which side of the industry gets involved. For some companies that run in an internal function, they urge their employees to work from home and interact via video conferencing applications such as Zoom and Slack. As you can imagine, these two apps are doing quite well because they get to be in demand in this particular situation. It provides an advantage to those individuals who no longer need to travel only to go to work.

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The same goes for delivery options. Since people are required to stay at home, they now turn to delivery services to get food and supplies. Regardless of the fee, people are now choosing to pay additional cash for the convenience they are receiving. That is because of the advantage of not exposing themselves from the uncertainty of the outside world.

Another one is the convenience of finding entertainment despite getting stuck at home. To pass the long hours, people enjoy streaming platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Youtube, and others alike. These networks provide people with convenience and stress-relieving options, making them want to stick with the rules of social distancing and home quarantine.

Thus, with all these advantages, we can expect that these technology companies continue enjoying their services and seemingly getting the benefits of the situation. That is not a bad thing, actually. In a time like this, those are the only options people can get.

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The Supply Chain

Coronavirus is affecting the tech hardware business by targeting the supply chain. Perhaps people know the brand name of a TV, laptop, and phone. But that only tells them little about the design and assembly of a particular item. That is because getting all the parts together needs a complicated web of contractors, subcontractors, and manufacturing warehouses that goes entirely unseen. Meaning, the parts of an item comes from different manufacturing companies. So people get the idea that the process of creating a particular item is all interconnected. Thus, if one manufacturing company or supplier shuts down, it cripples the entire production system and grinds everything into a halt.

People assume that these large companies can stand alone during this pandemic crisis because they have been the most prominent companies in the market. However, the shortfall is not immediate. When the warehouse and other manufacturing factories stay empty, we can all expect a shortage of goods. It will be followed by rising prices as the demand for some technological items increases as well. But fortunately, most of these technical items are high cost. Therefore, they are less prone to hoarding. However, that does not mean that with the Coronavirus outbreak, things will still be the same.

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Takeaway

People are noticing the situation right now.  So it is no secret to them that some businesses choose to stay out of the competition due to lack of demand. While the large industries are striving hard to keep intact with the economic function, the smaller enterprises are giving up their chances because of the slow return of investments. In some unfortunate cases, the chances of earning seem impossible.