FROM COVID-19 TO THE FUTURE OF E-COMMERCE AND LIVESTREAMING

Host of the most acclaimed US food show, Alton Brown once revealed that after 9/11, Americans were all too stressed out by terrorists news and updates. They were in desperate needs of a relief, and such “soothing” programs as cartoons and food shows seemed to best fulfil their desire. To boost ratings, studios had no choice but to restructure.

Given that we could hardly ever be in awe of terrorist, epidemics or disasters, our attention is, for the most parts, well-captured by news on these events, which not only carries information, but also instils unfounded fears and exerts devastating impacts on emotions. Were you women, you would then have more reasons to bypass those, for you have been proved to more regularly jog your unpleasant memory, as well as being under more severe impacts.

For the last couples of days, I occasionally went online to review Covid-19 figures (and posted this post). Never did I ever read the “latest news” on the patients, for (1) it was none of my business, (2) I could have easily fell for fake news, and lastly (3), I could hardly interpret what they meant in those articles.

Without adult movies, social media, games, movies, comics and other entertaining tools, isolation would have been pretty much a painful process. For “humans” could hardly ever be separated from “the community”, we could even die of solitude before we could die of any epidemic.

Thusly, Pornhub announcing they’re giving away premium accounts for Italians to aid them on this fierce fight (to some extents) might be considered a gentle behavior.

An upsurge in the number of livestream viewers would hardly guarantee an upsurge in streamers’ income. For the market is being increasingly vulnerable, there would rarely spearhead any advertising/demand stimulating campaigns.

In the context of school closures, sports suspensions, concert cancellations and cinema delays amid the epidemic, Netflix, TikTok, Discord, Twitch, as well as other streaming platforms are deemed the saving grace for those having to strenuously defend at their own homes”.

Tiktok has so far been enjoying a year-over-year increase to 99 mins/user/day in retention rate on average. Last year, the figure was 67 mins/user/day. Kuaishou, a pretty much similar platform, has also experienced a similar growth pattern to an average of 71 minutes a day from last year’s 44. Whilst it has been a sea of red on global stock markets, Netflix’s stock price still is swelling.

Internet traffic in Italy has also escalated by 70%, for the most parts, thanks to Fortnite, forasmuch as Discord has recently announced that they would soon up the limit of livestreaming to 50, instead of 10 viewers simultaneously.

Indeed, we couldn’t have been more creative.

It ranges from a boy livestreaming himself sleeping, ending up getting millions of views, farmers turning to Tiktok to clear stocks to even concerts livestreaming. Still, it seems incomprehensive to me why on earth would someone attend a livestreamed concert.

It has so far been a thriving “happiness for sale while at home” industry.

More intriguingly, the pandemic has even marked the boom of a rather new industry - technology and food delivery.

Chinese supermarkets, as well as fast food restaurants, have up to now adopted an innovative, “contactless” approach to food delivery. For the pandemic has force closed a considerable number of conventional grocery stores, McDonald, Starbuck, KFC, Pizza Hut, as well as other food restaurant chains were put under the so-called situation “to develop contactless approach, or to die”.

Such popular ecommerce platforms as JD and Walmart have also enjoyed a fourfold year-over-year increase in fresh products.

That said, boosted turnovers alone is not enough to prove that Covid-19 has so far acted as a precursor to ecommerce development. Global bans, as well as incurred procedures, have since casted the first stone on the supply chains, thus taking a toll on ecommerce. Amazon has recently informed customers of scarcity of certain products and delivery delays due to the pandemic.

The Internet advance, as well as the virtual community, might so far have failed to satisfy the users as handsomely as a real community. A rather “sensical” figure is that the number of divorce papers in China has skyrocketed since couples have had to face each other all too often during this isolation period.

That said, regardless of the “must-have” characteristics of a pandemic, Covid-19 has so far investigated such new economic, social, contemporary cultural, and even future models as livestreaming, ecommerce and cashless transactions.

“A pandemic breeds an economic crisis, which then naturally selects phenomenal and sustainable enterprises alone. Only they are exceptionally capable of overcoming this crisis and rising from their ashes”.

But first, we have to conquer this pandemic.