by Sam Williams
COVID-19 caused many companies to go out of business, especially local and small businesses, which we hear about nearly every day. What people don’t hear about is some of the companies and activities that are doing better than ever thanks to COVID.
Amazon and Uber Eats are obvious and popular examples of this because some people were, and still are, not willing, especially at the beginning of COVID, to go to a store in-person when they could simply order what they want online. Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon and known as the richest person on earth, had a net worth of about $114 billion in late 2019, right before COVID was first heard of. A few months after the first quarantine, in late August, Bezos’ net worth reached $200 billion, becoming the first person ever to have a net worth of that size. Since then, his net worth has gone down, but it is at $185 billion, which is still a whopping $71 billion more than what it was in 2019.
Another group of companies that did well in early quarantine were pet stores. Many people wanted to have one to look after, as it would be the perfect time due to the amount of attention they can give and in return they would have a companion during a time when no one could leave their houses.
When online school and work from home began, millions of companies and schools turned to Zoom. The platform is easy to navigate and seems like the best replacement for real classes, so, many schools decided to use it, and it ended up working. Although it may seem that once COVID dies down, Zoom will die down with it, this may not be completely true. Zoom made meetings and conferences much easier, as no one has to travel to show up. While Zoom may stop being used in classes, there are many other ways it may continue to be used.
Online entertainment such as Netflix, YouTube or, video games, did especially well during periods where people had to quarantine, as there was not much else to do. Google, owning Youtube, Google Meet, and many other academic programs such as Docs and Classroom, did very well, as it was already used by classes before they went online.
Although the pandemic is an awful and tragic experience, it affected companies not only negatively, but positively as well.
