The coronavirus pandemic has been bad news for business. But even as some technology companies have been squeezed tight, others have actually seen a boost.
Some were in the right place at the right time – while others have seen the real-world trade they rely on shut down completely.
Winner: Working from home
When your boss told you to start working from home, you might have had to rush to get to grips with the new kit to do so.
Entire populations did – which is good news for those making the software.
Despite some major PR disasters around privacy and security issues, Zoom‘s stock price more than doubled since December.
And its user numbers have exploded from 10 million a day to 200 million.
Once a relatively unknown business app, it’s been used for everything from cabinet meetings to farm-animal cameos.
It’s not alone. In March, Microsoft Teams said it had hit 44 million users, a jump of 40% in the space of a week.
Remote-access software Teamviewer has seen “significant extra demand”.
And the chief executive of popular work-chat app Slack reported setting repeated all-time user records day after day at the end of March.
Winner: Gaming
When we’ve finished the work day, we’re still staying at home.
And Gaming is doing well while people are stuck indoors and in need of an escape.
Literally, in the case of Animal Crossing, on the Nintendo Switch – it puts the player on a deserted island getaway, building a colourful town populated by talking animals.
Players have loved designing new homes and it’s now Nintendo’s biggest game launch on the console.
Online games are also seeing a big boost in numbers, with the newly launched Call of Duty game rocketing to tens of millions of players.
Analysts estimate game sales are up about 35% year on year and hardware is up 63%, meaning consoles are frequently out of stock.
Today’s success might not last, though and new games and consoles still being made are likely to be delayed. The head of Xbox says the industry will feel the pain in 2021 and the stock prices are taking a hit, despite the good sales figures.
Winner: Streaming
We’re also putting a solid chunk of the money we’re not spending on going out towards other entertainment.
Netflix has attracted 16 million new subscribers and having already shot all of its own content for the year, it says, it has fresh content scheduled for months to come.
Disney+, meanwhile, was perfectly positioned for the lockdown, launching in the UK and other markets at the end of March. At that point, it already had more than 33 million subscribers and now, it has nearly 55 million – making it Netflix’s biggest competitor.
With cinemas shut, major current film releases have gone straight to digital and this has been so successful, Universal has said it wants it to continue after the lockdown ends, starting an enormous row with world’s largest cinema chain.
TV and films aside, Spotify has hit 130 million paid subscribers under lockdown. It makes some of its money from advertising on its free service, though – and that’s completely dried up.
Loser: Transport
We’re gaming and watching movies because we’re not going anywhere and UK car sales are at the lowest level since 1946.
Uber, meanwhile, is cutting thousands of jobs in its offices and that doesn’t include drivers, who are self-employed and dealing with the same crisis.
E-scooters are also under pressure, having had to shut down operations in some cities.
But that might not last, they are currently banned from public roads in the UK.
But a UK retailer says sales have boomed anyway and the government is fast-tracking a trial, so they can be used instead of packed Tube trains once restrictions ease.
NicheTech 