It’s fair to say that COVID-19 has changed our lives in many ways. Whether you’ve been directly affected by the virus itself, or have had do adapt to what’s been going on around you, not a single person can say their habits, spending or hobbies haven’t changed in some capacity.
For some businesses, it’s been catastrophic. The high street is struggling to recover, as people snub physical shopping, while the restaurant trade has also been hit hard. On the other hand, some businesses are thriving.
Technology has played a huge part in how we’ve adapted, and there are many industries now thriving as consumers look to use the web for all manner of tasks.
They will continue to thrive as we now start to exit this lockdown, and below you’ll find the top four industries which are set to really boom in both the short term and long term post Coronavirus.
Mobile/Online Gaming
What hit many of us during the lockdown was the simple lack of things to do. With bars, restaurants, gyms, sports pitches, bingo halls and casinos all closed, social calendars were left empty.
Online gaming has filled that void in many ways. For those looking to play sports, they’ve picked up the likes of FIFA or Football Manager, a trip to a casino has been replaced with logging on to the online poker tables, while online bingo has seen a 30% influx in players since lockdown.
And it’s been recorded they’ve maintained that level of player too, despite bingo halls having reopened.
Of course, to people who were already playing, that’s no surprise. The large number of variants available across sites like Moonbingo.com makes it largely more convenient, as well as speedier and in some cases more exciting to play.
It’s a similar story in other forms of gaming too. Significantly more people have been playing via their mobile during lockdown, and as we come out it’s expected the industry will continue to rise, albeit not exactly on the same trajectory as the last few months.
Studies are already showing that it is levelling off, but as an industry mobile gaming has been rising for years, and unlike many other industries post-coronavirus will remain unaffected and only continue to grow.
Augmented reality could play a huge part in that and has already been making a huge splash during lockdown alongside virtual reality.
There are already a number of brands that are effectively adopting augmented reality and as people continue to have less trust in physically shopping, a recent poll found that 80% of people would be uncomfortable trying clothes on in store, they are only going to increase in popularity.
Online fitting rooms have been popular, although the best example perhaps comes from IKEA, which allows people to use augmented reality to see how an item of furniture would look in their home.
The app uses the camera from your phone or tablet to place an item in your space.
By 2024 it’s estimated that the augmented reality industry will be worth $50billion and not only be used to aid customers with purchases, but also as a mechanism for training and other areas of business too.
Virtual Meeting Apps/Sites
Zoom has been one of the big winners during lockdown and has seen a surge in users not just to communicate socially, but for work too.
Zoom in Numbers:
- 2,000% increase in new accounts during lockdown
- 13 million users during April, up from 659,000 in January
- 7 in 10 people were making weekly video calls during pandemic
As people are starting to be allowed to see each other socially distanced the number of social calls has started to decrease. However, with most people still working from home, and the anticipation that many businesses will ditch the office entirely, virtual meeting apps and websites are going to continue to thrive.
It’s expected Zoom meetings, or the likes of Microsoft Teams and Google Hangouts, will largely replace the external meeting, and if people are still working from home, the internal one too.
E-Learning
E-learning is an industry that’s really expected to boom over the next few years as people adapt to life after the virus.
Some universities in the UK will be supplying all their lectures online during the 2020/21 academic year, while work courses and seminars will also largely ditch the conference centres for large-scale video calls and courses.
In recent years the E-Learning industry has already enjoyed a steady year-on-year rise, but that will be boosted over the coming years, as people look to avoid regular contact with others in confined spaces.
CEO of Upskill People, Pete Fullard has already seen numbers of people looking to move their learnings online increase, stating:
“We’ve had a lot of coaches approach us to blend remote coaching with our online courses and combined measurement approach, particularly at management level.”
As we get used to the ‘new normal’ it’s going to become more part and parcel, which is great news for the E-Learning industry as a whole.
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