At this point, it is clear that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused enormous damage to the economy as a whole and much of the business around the world.

Many companies have been liquidated, employees have lost their jobs. Why did this happen, and who stayed afloat?

Who Lost?

  • Small firms with rented premises
  • Food outlets, and similar establishments that do not provide delivery
  • Large firms with non-essential goods (furniture, interior, appliances, and others)
  • Poorly modernized business

Who did win?

  • Business developing online sales
  • Business providing delivery
  • Company owners with essential goods
  • Owners of entertainment resources such as Netflix
  • Netflix says: "People want to watch something good and forget about what is happening more than ever."

    On April 22, Netflix announced that it had nearly 16 million new subscribers between January and March.

    But even online companies faced certain challenges. The losses of these companies increased due to the increase in the number of staff, due to the implementation of compliance with disinfection measures and the purchase of protective equipment. In total, in large companies, these costs have eaten away most of the cash.

    According to the resource bbc.com, the following data are published:

    LOGISTICS

    It can be assumed that the growth of online sales should be happy with carriers delivering packages, food and whatever you want to your home. But it’s not that simple.

    The American companies FedEx and UPS, one of the world's largest distributors of goods, have already asked the US federal government for help, as they are experiencing serious difficulties with logistics due to lockdowns.

    On the one hand, the number of individual clients has increased dramatically. But the most profitable part of the business of these companies suffered - delivery from one commercial enterprise to another, since many are either closed or have reduced the volume of work to the utmost.

    UPS profits have already dropped 26% this year.

    FOOD DELIVERY

    The impact of the pandemic on home delivery companies has proven to be controversial.

    In many countries and cities, restaurants are allowed to prepare takeaway or home delivery.

    During the epidemic, the demand for grocery delivery from supermarkets rose sharply, but people, as it turned out, are in no hurry to order food from restaurants at home.

    Across Europe, Reuters reports that restaurant food delivery companies such as Just Eat and Uber Eats are reporting steady declines in customer numbers. And this is happening against the backdrop of a noticeable increase in food deliveries from supermarkets.

    CHATTING IN INTERNET

    Around the world, hundreds of millions of people are forced to work from home. The result is communication on the Internet.

    Most of all, this has benefited Zoom, which allows people in different cities and even countries to communicate via video link.

    More than 130 million installed the Zoom app in April - 60 times more than before the pandemic. 18% of new Zoom users are from India, 14% are from the USA.

    WORK FROM HOME

    Most people use Zoom for free. The company makes money from value-added services; in the first three months of 2020, he earned $ 122 million - twice as much as in the same period last year.

    Slack is useful too. She specializes in instant messaging and business communication in companies. Slack users doubled from January to March.

    From all the information, we can conclude that in the 21st century, the century of technology, only business survives, one way or another related to Internet trade. Internet resources stimulate sales, allow you to announce your company to the whole world, and it is unlikely that offline business will already regain its position in this matter.

    AS A RESULT

    Times are not stable and often difficult: world economic crises, epidemics, man-made disasters and pandemics. This all happens differently in each country, but the main lesson we can learn for business is that the business needs to be mobile, flexible, flexible and have an online presence. The faster a business can adapt to changing circumstances on a global scale, the longer and more successful it will be.