We broadcast, expand, order groceries and houseplants online, create virtual villages while navigating the shortage of laptops to work and learn at home.
When it comes to technology, 2020 was a year like no other – and as the world was forced to adapt to the coronavirus pandemic, some technology companies have gained a lot, while others have lost.
Losers
Virtual reality
As the world adjusted to a new reality trapped at home, the pandemic could have been virtual reality’s chance to offer an escape. With the use of headphones and special accessories such as gloves, the technology allows people to interact with a 360 degree view of a three-dimensional environment, apparently suitable for people trapped indoors.
But people opted for easier-to-use software and games they already owned. Few have rushed to spend hundreds of dollars on a clumsy new headset or have tried to learn the strings of virtual reality meeting software. And no virtual reality game has entered the market. Therefore, virtual reality, on the verge of success for decades, has lost its momentum, again.
Social media election labels
It was the year of record labels on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and even TikTok. Before the November 3 presidential vote, companies pledged to crack down on electoral misinformation, including unfounded allegations of fraud and premature declarations of victory by candidates. And the most visible part of that was the variety of labels applied to tweets, posts, photos and videos.
“Some or all of the content shared on this Tweet is contested and can be misleading about an election or other civic process,” said a typical label applied to a tweet from President Donald Trump.
But many experts said that while the labels made it look like companies were acting, “at the end of the day it proved to be quite ineffective,” as Jennifer Grygiel, a professor at Syracuse University and a social media expert, said.
Quibi
Less than a year ago, Quibi released a flashy Super Bowl ad that asked the question “What is a Quibi?” People may still be scratching their heads.
Quibi, short for “quick bites,” raised $ 1.75 billion from investors, including major players from Hollywood, Disney, NBCUniversal and Viacom.
Quibi founder Jeffrey Katzenberg raised $ 1.75 billion from investors, but closed the company in October, just six months after its April launch. [File: Taylor Jewell/AP Photo]
But the service struggled to reach viewers, as short videos abound on the internet and the coronavirus pandemic kept many people at home. It announced that it was closing in October, just a few months after its launch in April.
Uber and Lyft
Fresh out of their initial public offerings the previous year and still struggling to show that they can be profitable, hitchhiking services were affected by the pandemic in 2020, when people stopped taking cars and huddled in the house.
In May, Uber laid off 3,700 people, or about 14% of its workforce. Lyft also announced job cuts.
But there are some signs of hope. After significantly reducing restructuring costs in the second quarter, Lyft said last month that it expects to have its first profitable quarter by the end of 2021.
Fresh out of their initial public offerings the previous year and still struggling to show they can be profitable, hitchhiking services were beaten by the pandemic in 2020, as people hailed less hitchhikers [File: Michael Dwyer/AP Photo]
And companies won a major victory in California, where voters passed Proposition 22, granting them an exception to a law that sought to classify their drivers as employees, an expense that analysts thought would have hurt their business in the most populous state in the world. parents. .
Ban on TikTok in the USA
While India has banned the popular video sharing app in the United States, TikTok seems close to ending Donald Trump’s term without the president succeeding in his efforts to ban him.
Earlier this month, a federal judge blocked a possible ban. It was the last legal defeat for the government in its efforts to take the app away from its Chinese owners. In October, another federal judge postponed a strike scheduled for November.
Many artists, such as choreographer Netta Yerushalmy, turned to social media to share their work during the coronavirus pandemic, posting songs and artwork on Instagram [File: Mary Altaffer/AP Photo]
Meanwhile, the government deadline for TikTok’s parent company ByteDance to conclude an agreement that would make Oracle and Walmart invest in TikTok has also ended, with the status of the agreement unclear.
While President-elect Joe Biden has said that TikTok is a concern, it is unclear what his government will continue with the Trump administration’s banning attempts.
Winners
Nintendo Switch
Even in a year announcing spectacular new Xbox and PlayStation consoles, the Nintendo Switch was the console it could be. Launched in 2017, the Switch became a fast seller. This was helped by the release of the Switch Lite manipulated in September 2019.
In March, it was difficult to find a switch, as people were looking for ways to have fun indoors. What boosted its popularity was the launch of the island simulation game “Animal Crossing: New Horizons”, which debuted on March 20 and has already sold 26 million units globally, according to Nintendo.
According to the NPD Group, during the first 11 months of 2020, the Nintendo Switch sold 6.92 million units in the United States. It was the best-selling console in units sold for 24 consecutive months – a record.
According to the NPD Group, during the first 11 months of 2020, the Nintendo Switch sold 6.92 million units in the United States [File: Steven Senne/AP Photo]Enlargement
All video conferencing software – from Microsoft Teams to WebEx – thrived during the abrupt shift of tens of millions of people to work and study remotely during a pandemic. But only one became a verb.
Zoom Video Communications was a relatively unknown company before the pandemic arrived, but its ease of use allowed for widespread adoption during the pandemic.
There were some growth problems, including loose security that led to “Zoom bombing” violations in the beginning. The company has renewed its security and remains one of the popular platforms for hosting remote meetings and classes.
Ransomware providers
The scourge of ransomware – in which criminals hold data hostage, shuffling it until victims pay – reached epic dimensions in 2020, combining terribly with the plague COVID-19. In Germany, a patient left the emergency room of a hospital whose IT system was paralyzed by an attack and died on the way to another hospital.
In the United States, the number of attacks on health facilities was on the way to almost double from 50 in 2019. Attacks on state and local governments have increased by about 50 percent to over 150. Even elementary schools have been hit – closing the distance learning for students from Baltimore to Las Vegas.
Cyber security company Emsisoft estimates the cost of ransomware attacks in the United States this year alone at more than $ 9 billion between paid ransoms and downtime / recovery.
Computer manufacturers
After starting the year battling exasperating delays in its supply chains, the personal computer industry found itself struggling to keep up with the growing demand for machines that became indispensable during a pandemic that kept millions of workers and students at home.
The outbreak initially paralyzed production because computer manufacturers were unable to obtain the parts they needed from factories abroad that closed during the early stages of the health crisis.
After facing exasperating delays in its supply chains in early 2020, the personal computer industry found itself struggling to keep up with the growing demand for machines as people worked and learned at home [File: Kathy Willens/AP Photo]
These closings contributed to a sharp drop in sales during the first three months of the year. But since then, there have been boom times.
The July to September period was particularly robust, with computer shipments in the United States rising 11% over the same period in 2019 – the industry’s biggest quarterly sales increase in a decade, according to research firm Gartner.
E-commerce
The group’s largest, Amazon, is one of the few companies that thrived during the coronavirus outbreak. People turned to her to order groceries, supplies and other items online, helping the company generate record revenue and profits between April and June. This was despite having to spend $ 4 billion on cleaning supplies and paying workers overtime and bonuses.
But it’s not just Amazon. The pandemic is accelerating the shift to online shopping, a trend that experts hope to say even after vaccines allow the world to resume a normal life.
People turned to Amazon to order groceries, hygiene products and other items online, helping the company record record revenue numbers between April and June [File: Steven Senne/AP Photo]
And thanks in part to buyers who consciously support small businesses, Adobe Analytics says online sales at smaller U.S. retailers increased 349% on Thanksgiving and Black Friday.
In the more than 1 million companies that use Shopify to build their websites, sales have increased 75% over the previous year, to $ 2.4 billion on Black Friday, according to Shopify.
The jury is out
Big Tech
Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Google had a good financial performance, with the share price and the profit of each company increasing considerably since the beginning of the year. They gained users, launched new products and features and continued to hire, even when other companies and sectors faced significant cuts.
But all is not well in the world of Big Tech. Regulators are taking a deep breath in the neck of each company and that is not expected to decrease by 2021. Google faces an antitrust lawsuit from the Department of Justice. And Facebook was hit by one from the Federal Trade Commission, along with almost every U.S. state seeking to separate it from WhatsApp and Instagram.
More cases may follow. Congressional investigators spent months investigating the actions of Apple and Amazon, as well as Facebook and Google, and called the CEOs of the four companies to testify.