What do they have in common?

Have you noticed that while some companies are crippled, there are few others who are actually busy in this situation?

With the pandemic, more people are confined to their homes & physical distancing makes them rely on technology. Therefore, the importance of related products & services is greatly increased.

Which companies are really busy right now?

In the global stage, take a company like Amazon, they are hiring 100,000 new workers. Traffic for Calling, video calling and messaging has exploded for apps like Whatsapp. Streaming services like Netflix & Youtube are gaining more audiences. New sign-ups for Zoom, the video conferencing site has skyrocketed, while other online collaboration tools have experienced more than 40% growth in their service use.

Who is hit?

Obviously many industries and companies. But in Digital Tech, while some companies are getting more users & revenue, there are companies like Uber and Airbnb for example are badly affected.

Sudden Shift in Consumer Behavior

Yes! It is because of the pandemic. Even locally, with people confined to homes we see the consumer behavioral patterns are changing. But will the patterns continue?

Locally.

Private companies are already initiating working from home, so does the government. For example, a few days ago MD of Fairfirst Insurance Mr Sanjeev Jha put a post in linkedin about how his employees are approving claims online while working from home. Kapruka, the online ecommerce store just announced that they will be delivering groceries to home from Cargills supermarkets. Litro gas announced that they are ready to deliver gas cylinders to the doorstep.

We see more demand for Peo TV like services. We see more distance learning platforms/courses coming up from school to university level. Online banking services are encouraged by the banks.Even the Colombo Manning Market just announced that they will deliver vegetables to homes.

Takeaway

Most of these consumer habits such as working from home, online service consumption, use of online delivery services might be here to stay even after the pandemic settles down and the economy eventually improves. Therefore, there are many who would benefit from this kind of sudden shift in consumer behaviour,

• Deliver companies such as ubereats, or PickMe Food 
• Online stores/Ecommerce
• Online communication platforms/companies
• Online services such as doctor advice/consultation

are just to name a few.

Cloud and related technology will play a bigger role in Sri Lanka and in the global business arena. And finally it’s the Software companies or software providers will play the major and a serious role as enablers in this transformation process.