Side Effect of COVID-19: Increases in Use of Tech in All Sectors

It’s hard to find a lot of good things to say about the COVID-19 pandemic. But perhaps one thing would be the innovation that’s been shown to keep us connected from a distance and on the internet. The use of digital tools has spiked across industries during the coronavirus pandemic, an Amplitude report has found. The product intelligence platform provider’s report, released in late June, analyzed digital trends from more than 600 products in five key industries from early February to early May.

The five industries analyzed included consumer tech, B2B software as a service (SaaS), streaming media, e-commerce and marketplaces, and Fintech. Across all industries, the report identified unusual growth compared to the monthly average, indicating an unprecedented shift.

As the CEO of a company that serves over 40,000 digital products, I routinely talk about sea changes affecting our customers,” said Spenser Skates, CEO and co-founder of Amplitude, in a blog post.

“Digital trends can take years of buildup and several waves to reach ubiquity. COVID-19 changed that pattern overnight,” Skates said.

In a story by Macy Bayern on techrepublic.com, she outlines the uptick in five industries.

While all industries saw a marked increase in monthly users, each had different inflection points.

It’s all about the DAU’s for all five subjects of this study. Daily Active Users, Weekly Active Users and Monthly Active Users are the currency of these and many other online vertical markets. While most businesses saw a sudden positive spike in DAUs, which materialized over the course of two to five days between March 8 and March 22, the report found also found negative signs in other industries.

Some organizations saw a severe decrease in use, and others experienced steady increases and steady declines. The variance shows how different organizations adapted to the new normal of social distancing and reduced mobility at different speeds. Bayern’s article and others we have shared at Seeflection.com show how vital it is to understand the role of everything digital in a pandemic world.

One example of the report’s findings:

E-commerce

In early February, e-commerce almost immediately took off as more people stayed home due to COVID-19. With physical stores closing, consumers began shopping online, as displayed in the report.

The average daily active users (DAUs) grew by 33% between late February and mid-April, with the growth throughout May. Daily new users (DNUs) rose in March, peaking at 72% above the baseline, with an average shift of 48% right after the shelter-in-place orders started, the report found.

Overall usage in terms of actions (event volume) increased 55% on average.

Four other groups of industry stats in the article show why tech stocks are the only bright spot in an otherwise unsteady stock market and confirm the financial influence of online shopping.

read more at techrepublic.com