March 24, 2021

What the Pandemic has Meant for Tech Trends!

From new online learning resources to home office tools, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed our daily lives and how we go about our regular activities. This has showed that we need technology to connect safely with others, now more than ever.

Certain apps were even developed pre-pandemic but have evolved a lot due to their customer’s new needs, leaving us with pandemic-thriving, pandemic-proof and pandemic-rebounder mediums:

1- Zoom

Possibly the busiest app during the health crisis. During the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, it was reported that Zoom experienced a 300% increase in its use globally, either from mobile or desktop. It was the most downloaded app daily, with over 200 million meeting participants, comparing it to December 2019, where the numbers were around 10 million, daily.

Generally, online video conference apps had a 627% increase in downloads in North America alone, and a 121% increase in daily users. From Skype for Business, Google Meet, GoToMeeting and more.

Since Zoom can instantly operate on Zoom’s cloud, it has become a favourite between IT administrators, preferred by companies and educators.

These platforms are mostly use activities such as:

  • Web conferencing
  • eLearning
  • Meetings
  • Telemedicine
  • Remote desktop
  • Webinars
  • Live chat

 

2- Entertainment & Media

Unsurprisingly, media and entertainment have been a must during these trying times. During lockdown, these platforms had a usage increase of 25%, while music apps a 21%.

  • Netflix had a 55% increase of downloads during March. Netflix reported over 59 million new installs during the first quarter of 2020.
  • YouTube had a 110 million spent-in-app, gaining the number 1 spot of all streaming apps.
  • Disney+, a relatively new streaming platform, also saw an install bump increase of 46%.

Their target mostly relies on the 18–25-year-old category.

3- Online shopping, contactless deliveries, and payments

One of the biggest changes we have experienced thanks to the pandemic is the lack of contact with other human beings. It has also shown us how much technology can support greater needs!

Both B2B and B2C platforms have gone from a luxury to a must-have. Including contactless delivery services where supplies are picked up and dropped off at a designated location instead of from or into the hands of a costumer, all of this with support of a strong logistics system.

These methods have made delivery apps see a download increase of 60% at the beginning of March 2020. Some of them are Uber Eats, GrubHub, DoorDash, and Postmates. DoorDash had 150.000 users added in April last year.

At least 32% of American adults ordered food and 21% of them ordered groceries through these apps. The 3 most used apps for the latter are Instacart (with a 650% increase in new users between the first two months of the pandemic), Shipt, and Drizly.

Contactless payment is also having its moment; while some people preferred it before the pandemic, now it is just a necessary and better practice. Either in the form of cards or e-wallets, are recommended to avoid touching other surfaces. Digital payments let people to make online purchases and payments of goods, services and even utility way easier.

A couple of other apps that are worth mentioning are TikTok, Plague Inc., Google Classroom, Strava, Microsoft Teams and Outlook.

How many of these have you tried so far? How many are you planning on continuing to use once the world returns to normalcy? We’d love to read your answers!