We streamed, we zoomed in, we ordered groceries and houseplants online, we created virtual villages while we had a shortage of laptops to work and study at home.
In terms of technology, 2020 was a year like no other – and because the world was forced to adapt to the coronavirus pandemic, some technology companies made big money, while others lost.
Losers
Virtual reality
As the world adapted to a new reality, the pandemic could have been the chance of a virtual reality to escape. With the use of special headpieces and accessories such as gloves, the technology allows people to interact with a 360-degree view of a three-dimensional environment, which seems to fit well for people who are stuck indoors.
But people turned to software and games that were easier to use than they already had. Few rushed to spend hundreds of dollars on a clumsy new headphone or trying to learn the ropes of virtual reality event software. And no VR games have penetrated the mainstream. Virtual reality, which had been on the verge of success for decades, missed its moment again.
Election labels on social media
It was the year of labels on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and even TikTok. Ahead of the US presidential election on November 3, the companies promised to include incorrect information, including unfounded allegations of fraud and candidates’ premature declarations of victory. And the most visible part of this was the large labels applied to tweets, posts, photos and videos.
“Some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and may be misleading about an election or other civil process,” reads a typical etiquette applied to a tweet by President Donald Trump.
But many experts have said that it appears on the labels that the companies are acting, but at the end of the day it appears to be quite ineffective, as Jennifer Grygiel, a professor at Syracuse University and social media expert, put it has.
Quibi
Less than a year ago, Quibi launched a splashy Super Bowl ad asking the question “What is a Quibi?” People can still have headaches.
Quibi, short for ‘quick bite’, has raised $ 1.75 billion from investors, including major Hollywood players 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 launch in April [File: Taylor Jewell/AP Photo]
But the service has struggled to reach viewers as short videos abound on the internet and the coronavirus pandemic keeps many people at home. He announced that it would go on strike in October, just a few months after its launch in April.
Uber and Lyft
The drive-in greeting services were hit by the pandemic in 2020 because people stopped taking cars and crashed at home.
In May, Uber fired 3,700 people, or about 14 percent of its workers. Lyft also announced job cuts.
But there are some signs of hope. After Lyft significantly reduced costs in the second quarter through restructuring, Lyft said last month it expects to have its first profitable quarter at the end of 2021.
The frost services were hit by the pandemic in 2020, as people cheered fewer rides because they struggled with their initial public offerings the previous year and that they are still struggling to show that it can be profitable. [File: Michael Dwyer/AP Photo]
And the companies achieve a major victory in California, where voters pass Proposition 22, giving them another exception to a law they want to classify their executives as employees, an expense that analysts thought their business in the country with the most population groups. .
US TikTok Ban
While India has banned the popular video-sharing program in the US, it seems that TikTok is close to Donald Trump’s term, without the president succeeding in banning it.
Earlier this month, a federal judge blocked a potential ban. It was the latest legal defeat for the government in its efforts to remove the app from its Chinese owners. In October, another federal judge adjourned a closure scheduled for November.
Many artists like choreographer Netta Yerushalmy have turned to social media to share their work during the coronavirus pandemic and post music and artwork on Instagram. [File: Mary Altaffer/AP Photo]
Meanwhile, a government deadline for TikTok’s parent, ByteDance, to complete an agreement that Oracle and Walmart would invest in TikTok has also been passed, with the status of the deal unclear.
While President-elect Joe Biden has said TikTok is a concern, it is not clear what his government’s efforts will do to ban the Trump administration.
Wenners
Nintendo Switch
Even over a year that announced new consoles from Xbox and PlayStation, the Nintendo Switch was the console that could. The Switch, launched in 2017, has become a fast seller. This was helped by the launch of the managed Switch Lite in September 2019.
In March, it became difficult to find a switch because people were looking for ways to entertain in their homes. The popularity has increased the release of the island simulation game “Animal Crossing: New Horizons”, which started on March 20 and according to Nintendo has now sold a cumulative 26 million units worldwide.
According to the NPD group, Nintendo Switch sold 6.92 million units in the US during the first 11 months of 2020. It has been the top-selling console in units sold for 24 consecutive months – a record.
According to the NPD group, Nintendo Switch sold 6.92 million units in the US during the first 11 months of 2020 [File: Steven Senne/AP Photo]Zoom in
All the video conferencing software – from Microsoft Teams to WebEx – thrived during the sudden shift of tens of millions of people to remote work and education during a pandemic. But only one has become a verb.
Zoom Video Communications was a relatively uncooled enterprise before the pandemic, but its ease of use allows it to be accepted during the pandemic.
There were some growth pains, including slack security that led to early breaches of the “Zoom bombing”. The company has improved its security and is still one of the popular platforms to provide remote meetings and classes.
Ransomware Providers
The ransomware plague – in which criminals hold data hostage by scrambling it until the victims pay up – reaches epic proportions in 2020, which is terribly similar to the COVID-19 plague. In Germany, a patient turned away from the emergency room of a hospital whose IT system was paralyzed by an attack, on its way to another hospital.
In the U.S., the number of attacks on health care facilities was on track to nearly double from 50 in 2019. Attacks on state and local governments increased by about 50 percent to more than 150. Even the grammar schools were hit, providing distance education for students from Baltimore to Las Vegas.
Cybersecurity firm Emsisoft estimates the cost of U.S. ransomware attacks in the U.S. alone this year at more than $ 9 billion between ransom and downtime / recovery.
Computer makers
After the personal computer industry began the huge delays in their supply chains, the personal computer industry tried to keep up with the rising demand for machines that became indispensable during a pandemic that kept millions of workers and students at home.
The outbreak initially stimulated production because computer manufacturers could not get the necessary parts from overseas factories that were closed in the early stages of the health crisis.
After struggling delays in their supply chains in early 2020, the personal computer industry has scrambled to keep pace with rising demand for machines while people work and learn at home. [File: Kathy Willens/AP Photo]
These closures contributed to a sharp decline in sales during the first three months of the year. But it has been high tide ever since.
The July-September period was particularly strong, with computer shipments in the US rising 11 percent from the same time in 2019 – according to research firm Gartner, the industry’s largest quarterly increase in a decade.
E-commerce
The largest group, Amazon, is one of the few companies that thrived during the coronavirus outbreak. People turned to ordering groceries, supplies and other items online, which helped the company achieve records and profits between April and June. It came even though he had to spend $ 4 billion on cleaning supplies and pay workers overtime and bonuses.
But it’s not just Amazon. The pandemic is accelerating the shift to online shopping, which a trend experts expect to say even after the vaccines enable the world to resume normal lives.
People have turned to Amazon to order groceries, toiletries and other items online, helping the company put record numbers between April and June. [File: Steven Senne/AP Photo]
And thanks in part to buyers consciously supporting small businesses, Adobe Analytics says online sales at smaller U.S. retailers rose 349 percent on Thanksgiving and Black Friday.
Among the more than 1 million businesses that Shopify uses to build their websites, sales, according to Shopify, rose 75 percent from a year ago to $ 2.4 billion on Black Friday.
Jury is out
Great technology
Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Google have performed well financially, with the share price and profits of each company since the beginning of the year. They gained users, rolled out new products and features and kept going, even while other companies and industries cut back significantly.
But not everything is good in the world of Big Tech. Regulators are breathing down every company’s neck and this is unlikely to be facilitated in 2021. Google is facing an antitrust lawsuit from the Department of Justice. And Facebook has been hit by one of the Federal Trade Commission, along with almost every U.S. state that wants to separate it from WhatsApp and Instagram.
More cases may follow. In addition to Facebook and Google, congressional investigators watched the actions of Apple and Amazon for months and called on the CEOs of all four companies to testify.