World stock markets are struggling, the coronavirus has put pressure on households, governments, central banks and listed companies, with the exception of Amazon, Microsoft and Netflix these tech companies resisting coronavirus.
Before I talk to you about these technology companies I would like to give you a small summary, central banks like the Fed, Bank of Japan, ECB have injected money to support the economy, so far no problem but how long can this situation last? Mario Draghi former president of the ECB did the same thing in the past (famous his “whatever it takes”), but are we sure that continuing to inject money in the long term will resolve the situation?
Looking at the Nasdaq Index’s chart since March 23 has recovered great, but don’t be fooled by this picture because it is easy to see this recovery. If you calculate the capitalization of technology companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook and Netflix, I think they envy any other global index.
Coronavirus has increased smart working, if you think about online courses, webinars, video conferencing due to travel restrictions, you will understand why there has been a digital boom.
Microsoft with its services has scored a 15% turnover, in particular cloud market has grown (I remind you of my article on the Azure platform) by 20%. Workers will now have to use technology companies’s services, not only for reasons related to coronavirus but also for the limitations that are at work, to demonstrate this you can check pc Windows sales (+55%).
Netflix was in trouble last year, then by the end of december it started to increase the stock price, in fact there was a boom in subscriptions and then you have to think about, that you just need a smart TV, a tablet or a smartphone to access multimedia content.
Streaming, cloud, sharing are 3 keywords of these tech companies, look at Amazon, during the coronavirus has further increased sales, if a user subscribes to Amazon Prime will have available a full range of Prime services as well as movies and TV series. From big tech companies to e-commerce that has flown into food and pharmaceutical industry, think only of coronavirus protection masks, medicines for people who couldn’t move from home and food delivery.
Using smartphones you can order food, tech companies like Takeaway, Deliveroo and Just Eat have built digital platforms by connecting customers and restaurants a bit like Booking, Airbnb and Expedia did.
All very nice and “smart” but many people forget about shops that will be forced to close, causing further unemployment, my question is: will governments be able to support even “small shops “or will we be dependent on the tech giants?
