We streamed, expanded, ordered groceries and houseplants online, created virtual villages while navigating the shortage of laptops to work and learn from home.
In terms of technology, 2020 was a year like no other and, as the world was forced to adapt to the coronavirus pandemic, some technology companies gained a lot, while others lost.
The losers
Virtual reality
As the world adapted to a new trapped reality, the pandemic could have been the opportunity for virtual reality to escape. With the use of headphones and special accessories such as gloves, the technology allows you to interact with a 360-degree view of a three-dimensional environment, apparently a good fit for people trapped inside.
But people engaged in easier-to-use programs and games than they already had. Few hurried to spend hundreds of dollars on new or cheeky headphones or tried to learn the ropes of virtual reality meeting software. And no virtual reality game went into the mainstream. So virtual reality, on the verge of success for decades, lost its momentum, again.
Electoral tags on social media
It was the year of tags on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and even TikTok. Prior to the November 3 U.S. presidential vote, companies pledged to curb electoral misinformation, including baseless allegations of fraud and premature declarations of victory by candidates. And the most visible part of that was the distribution of tags applied to tweets, posts, photos, and videos.
“Part or all of the content shared in this tweet is discussed and can be misleading about an election or other civic process,” said a typical tag applied to a tweet by President Donald Trump.
But many experts said that while the labels showed companies taking action, “at the end of the day it turned out to be pretty ineffective,” as Jennifer Grygiel, a professor at Syracuse University and a social media expert, said. .
Which one
Less than a year ago, Quibi launched a Super Bowl ad asking the question “What is a Quibi?” People may still scratch their heads.
Quibi, short for “quick bites,” raised $ 1.75 million from investors, including major Hollywood Disney, NBCUniversal and Viacom players.
Quibi founder Jeffrey Katzenberg raised $ 1.75 million from investors, but closed the company in October, just six months after its launch in April. [File: Taylor Jewell/AP Photo]
But the service struggled to reach viewers as short videos abound on the Internet and the coronavirus pandemic kept many people at home. He announced that it would close in October, a few months after its release in April.
Uber and Lyft
Finished off its initial public offerings the previous year and still struggling to prove they can be profitable, the pandemic overwhelmed attraction services in 2020 as people stopped taking cars and piled up at home.
In May, Uber laid off 3,700 people, or about 14% of its workforce. Lyft also announced job cuts.
But there are some signs of hope. After significantly cutting costs for second-quarter restructuring, Lyft said last month that it expects to have its first quarter profitable by the end of 2021.
Finished off its initial public offerings the previous year and still struggling to prove they can be profitable, the pandemic overwhelmed attraction services in 2020 as people welcomed fewer attractions [File: Michael Dwyer/AP Photo]
And companies won a major victory in California, where voters passed Proposition 22, granting them an exception to a law that sought to classify their drivers as employees, an expense analysts thought would have sunk their business. in the most populous state in the nation. .
US TikTok ban
While India outlawed the popular video-sharing app in the United States, TikTok appears to be on the verge of escaping Donald Trump’s tenure without the president succeeding in his efforts to ban it.
Earlier this month, a federal judge blocked a possible ban. It was the administration’s last legal defeat in its efforts to snatch the application from its Chinese owners. In October, another federal judge postponed the closure scheduled for November.
Many artists such as choreographer Netta Yerushalmy have taken to social media to share their work during the coronavirus pandemic, posting music and artwork on Instagram [File: Mary Altaffer/AP Photo]
Meanwhile, a government deadline has also passed for ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, to finalize an agreement that would make Oracle and Walmart invest in TikTok, with the status of the deal unclear.
While President-elect Joe Biden has said the TikTok is a concern, it is unclear what his administration will bring in attempts to ban the Trump administration.
Winners
Nintendo Switch
Even in a year announcing new Xbox and PlayStation consoles, Nintendo Switch was the console that could do it. Launched in 2017, the Switch became a fast seller. This was helped with the launch of Switch Lite managed in September 2019.
In March, it became difficult to find a Switch as people were looking for ways to entertain themselves at home. Increased in popularity is the launch of the island simulation game “Animal Crossing: New Horizons”, which debuted on March 20 and has now sold 26 million units worldwide, according to Nintendo.
According to the NPD group, during the first 11 months of 2020, Nintendo Switch sold 6.92 million units in the US. It has been the best-selling console in units sold for 24 consecutive months, a record.
According to the NPD group, during the first 11 months of 2020, Nintendo Switch sold 6.92 million units in the US [File: Steven Senne/AP Photo]Zoom
All video conferencing programs (from Microsoft Teams to WebEx) thrived during the sudden shift of tens of millions of people to remote work and school during a pandemic. But only one became a verb.
Zoom Video Communications was a relatively little-known company before the success of the pandemic, but its ease of use allowed for widespread adoption during the pandemic.
There were some growing pains, including lax security that caused breaches of the “zoom bombing” at first. The company renewed its security and remains one of the popular platforms for organizing remote meetings and classes.
Ransomware providers
The scourge of ransomware, in which criminals hold hostage to messy data until victims pay, reached epic proportions in 2020, coinciding terribly with the COVID-19 plague. In Germany, a patient moved away from the emergency room of a hospital whose computer system was paralyzed by an attack and died on the way to another hospital.
In the United States, the number of attacks on health centers nearly doubled, from 50 in 2019. Attacks on state and local governments increased by about 50% to over 150. Even high schools have been affected, stopping remote learning by Baltimore students in Las Vegas.
Cybersecurity company Emsisoft estimates that the cost of U.S. ransomware attacks in the U.S. alone this year is more than $ 9 billion between paid rescues and downtime / recovery time.
Computer manufacturers
After starting the year facing exasperating delays in its supply chains, the personal computer industry found itself on the verge of keeping up with the increasing demand for machines that became indispensable. during a pandemic that kept millions of workers and students at home.
The outbreak initially hampered production because computer manufacturers were unable to obtain the parts they needed from overseas factories that closed during the early stages of the health crisis.
After battling the exasperating delays in its supply chains in early 2020, the personal computer industry found itself on the verge of keeping up with growing demand for machines as people worked and learned from home. . [File: Kathy Willens/AP Photo]
These closures contributed to a sharp decline in sales during the first three months of the year. But since then it has been a time of prosperity.
The period from July to September was particularly robust, with computer shipments to the United States up 11% over the same time in 2019, the industry’s largest quarterly increase in sales in a decade, according to the firm’s Gartner Research
E-commerce
The largest of the group, Amazon, is one of the few companies that has thrived during the coronavirus outbreak. People have gone there to order groceries, supplies and other items online, helping the company make record revenue and profits between April and June. He arrived even though he had to spend $ 4 billion on cleaning supplies and pay workers overtime and bonuses.
But it’s not just Amazon. The pandemic is accelerating the transition to online shopping, according to a trend that experts hope to say, even after vaccines allow the world to resume normal life.
People have turned to Amazon to order groceries, toiletries and other items online, helping the company post record revenue figures between April and June [File: Steven Senne/AP Photo]
And thanks in part to shoppers consciously supporting small businesses, Adobe Analytics claims that online sales to smaller U.S. retailers rose 349 percent on Thanksgiving and Black Friday.
In the more than one million companies that use Shopify to create their websites, sales rose 75 percent from a year ago to $ 2.4 billion on Black Friday, according to Shopify.
The jury is out
Great computer company
Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Google have had a good economic result, as the share price and profits of each company have increased considerably since the beginning of the year. They gained users, launched new products and features, and continued to hire even when other companies and industries were facing major cuts.
But not everything is fine in the world of Big Tech. Regulators are breathing down every company’s neck and are unlikely to relax in 2021. Google is facing an antitrust lawsuit from the Justice Department. And Facebook has been hit by one of the Federal Trade Commission along with almost every U.S. state trying to separate it from WhatsApp and Instagram.
More cases could follow. Congressional investigators spent months delving into the actions of Apple and Amazon, as well as Facebook and Google, and called for the CEOs of the four companies to testify.