Big Tech Benefits from Coronavirus Crisis

Due to the coronavirus, most of the economy is hurting. While many stores are being forced into layoffs, big tech is actually benefitting from the recent crisis.

In fact, Amazon recently just hired 100,000 warehouse workers to meet growing demand. While many people are opting to buy stuff online rather then venture to stores and risk falling ill, Amazon has seen a major hike in costumers.

Another company that is actually benefitting from the recent crisis is Microsoft, with the numbers using its software for online collaboration climbing nearly 40 percent in the past week. Many people have to use its software for job collaboration as offices chose to work online.

Even Zoom, an application used by many colleges (even PSU) for online courses, has seen an increase in foot traffic.

These businesses have a huge responsibility to keep the economy at least somewhat afloat in a time when many businesses are hurting.

Sources:

nytimes.com//2020/03/23/technology/coronavirus-facebook-amazon-youtube.html

3 thoughts on “Big Tech Benefits from Coronavirus Crisis

  1. I’ve been talking about this with my parents and sister recently. My sister is an elementary school teacher using Zoom, Google Classroom, and Seesaw (which were not used in the school before COVID-19). My dad works in the pharmaceutical world, and they also switched over to Zoom (over Skype, which is what they normally used). Even places, like my church, do Zoom services. “Workplace software companies like Zoom, Microsoft, and Google have offered their software for free and have taken pains to make sure they can accommodate the growing demand from users,” said Rani Molla (Vox). I think that this is incredible to help, especially because they are free and not really profiting. However, I think that this helps them gain more power because more people might buy into these services after this is over and they aren’t free anymore.

    https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/3/11/21173449/microsoft-google-zoom-slack-increased-demand-free-work-from-home-software

  2. I like your points made about how these tech companies like Microsoft and Amazon are benefiting from the crisis, among the decline that other companies are facing. These companies definitely are helping to keep the economy afloat during times like this. I was recently reading about how Amazon has been making changes to their workflow and motivation, even beyond hiring 100,000 new warehouse employees, like focusing more on essential goods and postponing the shipping of non-essentials until more important shipments can be accounted for. With this mass workflow and around-the-clock system comes risks, shown by a case of COVID-19 in a Kentucky Amazon warehouse. After an employee tested positive for the virus, the entire warehouse had to be shutdown, cleared and sanitized, which is a long and expensive process. This is one of several of these cases, and we can give props to Amazon for remaining open and helping those in need during the outbreak.

    To read more about the Kentucky closing and Amazon’s actions, please see this article:

    https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/03/26/822045229/amazon-closes-kentucky-warehouse-after-workers-test-positive

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