COVID-19 giving Birth to New Business Opportunities

November 17, 2019, a 55-year-old man was the first man suspected of contracting coronavirus in the Hubei province of China.

This happened over a month earlier than doctors started noticing people with similar symptoms in Wuhan, China. During that time, it was believed that something in the wet market could be the source of the virus.

Soon cases started emerging who had no relation to the wet market. This was a cause of concern.

It is believed the source of origin of the coronavirus was a bat and it transferred to a pangolin and from them to humans. Now the disease is spreading from one person to another directly.

On 11th of March, after the corona virus cases outside of China increased 13 folds, WHO declared the COVID-19 a global pandemic.

Currently, there are 2,069,280 cases in the World and the virus has caused 133,362 deaths. 508,826 patients have recovered so far.

In order to combat the pandemic, the WHO asked the governments of nations to take aggressive actions. WHO asked the governments to “detect, test, treat, isolate, trace, and mobilize their people”.

Effect of Corona on the World

The only way to combat the virus was to implement social distancing. Thus, most countries started implementing a nationwide lockdown to stop the spread of the virus.

Educational institutes, offices, public places like parks, malls, pools, and other nonessential places were closed. Essential businesses like pharmacies, departmental stores, fruits and vegetable shops, milk and meat shops and other businesses will stay open.

Employees were on paid leave or working remotely. Big restaurant chains who had multiple branches and thousands of employees will be impacted a lot.

These are tough times. Most businesses started working remotely, schools started online classes, restaurants stopped dine-in service and only allowed delivery or takeaway.

Life After Corona

Some businesses will die, others will thrive. And new business opportunities will rise. Corona impacted every business, here’s how

Some of the business opportunities which COVID-19 will give birth to are the following:

• Online health care
• E-commerce
• Online Education
• Online Entertainment
• Telecommuting

Online Health Care

The outbreak increased the business of online medical platforms. This is mainly because these platforms helped in screening of coronavirus patients from the others. This also aided in implementing social distancing.

There was a lack of resources to help screen everyone in the offline sector but these online platforms were able to compensate for that.

This also reduced locally transmitted cases which otherwise would’ve been a lot more than the current number if the patients went to hospitals for their tests.

The corona virus has raised the importance of hygiene and these medical platforms. In the coming years, we will definitely be seeing more online medical platforms like AliHealth and Tencent HealthCare in the coming years.

E-Commerce

E-Commerce stores have been around for quite some time now but over the past couple of months, their business has increased several folds. And now might be the perfect timing to start your own e-commerce store.

This is mainly because people wanted to implement social distancing and conventional methods of buying groceries might lead them to contracting the virus.

Online Education

The pandemic caused schools, colleges and universities to shutdown.

The educational institute all over the world didn’t want any hindrance in the education of students. Because these students might lead their respective nations one day.

So, almost all educational institutes set up virtual learning environments for their students. Some resorted to services like Zoom and Microsoft Teams to conduct classes and deliver their lectures.

Online Entertainment

Ever since the lock down was implemented, people have had to stay at home and refrain from outdoor activities.

So, in order to kill boredom people resorted to online entertainment. There are several streaming services like Amazon and Netflix which allow their customers to stream movies and television series online at an affordable rate.

Other than that, the gaming industry offered several free games during the lock down period to encourage people to stay at home.

Telecommuting

The current telecommuting tools in the market are not sufficient to cater to the business needs of everyone. The lock down causes an increase in the users of these tools but these tools can’t fulfill everyone’s needs right now.

The COVID-19 has forced businesses to rethink their business strategies and include telecommuting in their future plan.

Telecommuting services have grown with their demand. These tools allow business employees to work together remotely. They include several services such as video conferencing, remote meetings, etc., which will allow multiple people to collaborate on a project.

Although this is a pandemic but you should also think of this as an opportunity to remodel your businesses. Because only those businesses who will be able to adjust to the changing industry needs will be able to survive when the storm passes. And their market value will increase several folds.