The Digital Sector with the Potential to Be Stronger After the End of the Pandemic

Tough days have engulfed the economy and business during the pandemic. The current situation is expected to worsen the world economy and exacerbate the unemployment rate. International Monetary Fund or IMF project The economic impact of the Covid-19 outbreak will be much worse than the 2008 global recession.

But the recession is not only filled with bad news. History records that there have always been businesses, which have not only survived the crisis, but whose performance has increased drastically. Apart from the increasing demand in certain sectors, the right decisions and strategies are the reasons they can emerge as champions in their fields.

Airbnb and Uber could be a good example. Both stood when the storm of global recession centered in the United States was blowing hard. Airbnb which was founded in August 2008 is now worth US$35 billion. Uber was founded in March 2009 since the IPO is now valued at US $ 82,4 billion. In addition, there is also Pinterest which appeared in December 2009 has pocketed a valuation of up to US $ 10,6 billion.

This pattern actually does not only occur at startup. Not a few large corporations that we know today were born from a period of famine. Amazon and eBay are just a few of the examples. Adhering to this pattern, it will not be surprising after this pandemic ends, several types of services and their providers will emerge as winners.

Healthtech

It is undeniable that the current pandemic situation has succeeded in tapping the awareness of many people to be more sensitive to their health conditions. Ginger price which has now exceeded the price of IDR 100.000, up to five times the normal price, is the closest evidence of how people are increasingly paying attention to their health.

The same thing happened with healthtech. Telemedicine services, for example, are increasingly in demand by the public. Those who are worried about the possibility of contracting Covid-19 and are reluctant to leave their place of residence can easily access chatbots provided by the healthtech platform, such as from Alodokter, Halodoc, and Prixa.

Quoted from Dataword, Halodoc reportedly transactions for health supplements and products such as masks have doubled. Likewise, Alodokter, who said their platform traffic has exceeded two million visits. This indicates that the public will be familiar with the products offered by this platform.

Signs of a boom in the healthcare business are also on the stock exchange. Zacks Equity Research on site Nasdaq believes healthcare stocks in the United States will beat their first-quarter earnings forecasts.

video conferencing

If you have to draw the most important lessons from the current isolation period, the most relevant answer for white-collar workers is that virtual meetings aren't that difficult. Platforms video conference It's been around for years, but this is the first time virtual meetings have been accepted as commonplace.

Skype may be an app video conference the earliest known to the public. But during this period of self-quarantine, no one can deny that Zoom is the top choice for many people. Because of its popularity, Zoom is often used as a means of socializing.

Transparency Market Research calculates the market video conference will grow on average 8,4% from 2020-2027. The value of this market globally has reached US $ 6,1 billion or around Rp. 94 trillion last year. With the estimated growth rate above, the video conferencing market is around US$ 11,56 billion or Rp. 178 trillion.

Zoom has a great opportunity to dominate that market. However, the security of user data bad very likely to overtake Zoom as the number one player in the market. This means that the competition map is still wide open and other options beyond Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, to Cisco Webex, including local players such as Telkomsel CloudX.

Gaming

Many people's favorite leisure activities. With the limited number of activities that can be done during self-quarantine, game consoles and esports are perfect escape routes.

Indeed, in some aspects, the game ecosystem does not fully bring good news. Cancellation and the postponement of esports tournaments is an example. But beyond that, the game industry is growing fertile.

We can start from the number of players who have increased dramatically. Counter Strike Global Offensive, for example, recorded a record number of players playing at the same time of more than 1 million people. On other platforms, Animal Crossing so a new phenomenon. This Nintendo-made game has become the most talked about game in the world with record sales in various countries.

Meanwhile, game streaming is no less fast during this epidemic season. Twitch as a game streaming platform is the benchmark. Twitch has posted more than 3 billion hours aired during the first quarter. Record after record was set by other streaming platforms, such as YouTube Gaming Live and Facebook.

Agritech

Apart from health workers, no worker is more essential during a pandemic than them. Activity may be reduced, but the stomach will not be able to empty. Competing efficiency and speed are important for agritech players in the current situation.

In Indonesia, agritech players are flourishing. Activity restrictions to prevent the spread of Covid-19 strengthen position of agritech in the food distribution chain. The reason is that food shopping activities now inevitably have to be done from home.

This also affects the final distribution of agricultural products. If previously, consumers had to come to the market, supermarket, or modern retail, then the message and delivery system is the latest trend. As is well known, this system was very unusual before the Covid-19 outbreak hit because so far we have only ordered ready-made food. However, the current disaster period shows that the final distribution of food can be carried out in the future pintu house.