Remember the days when we had only one app for specific functionality, and that was it? Well long gone are the days. Imagine you are going on a business trip, and need to book a hotel in Bangalore for your stay, you'll be flooded by apps that are curated just for that one task. The app market has greatly matured over the years, and now you not only have to be good at what you do but have added perks for people to use it. The current internet era is all about trends, and how well can you appeal to the current demand, and the same goes for the pandemic at hand. While most of us have been stripped of the right to going on a weekend holiday to a couple friendly hotels with our partner or go to the movies, some apps have seen unprecedented growth due to the unforeseeable situation. The list below takes a look the successful apps and why they succeeded.
1. Zoom
According to The Verge report in late April, Zoom the American video calling app saw an increase of from 200 million non-unique participants in March 2020 to 300 million in April 20020. What's more astounding is, that the same figure was 10 million in last year December. So why Zoom? well some might say the pandemic paved their way such profit because the moment lockdown started, most meetings needed a platform and zoom being a normal choice for corporates, everyone started using zoom including a large chunk of the academic establishment. This was mainly due to the simple interface and good functionality Zoom provided for the free users, which something like Skype didn't provide and has many more complications. Zoom has faced some backlash due to hoarding of user data, hacking reports and even being banned in some countries and companies, but that hasn't stopped the growth of Zoom. Currently, many substitutes have entered the market most notably the Google meets, so with the ball on Zoom's court only time will tell if Zoom can concrete its position the pandemic has provided it.
2. Netflix
It was no surprise when Netflix saw huge growth in users when everyone around the word was being forced to stay inside their homes. According to Netflix's Q1 report posted in an article on Forbes, it had doubled it's expected new users from 7 million to 15.8 million by the end of April. The international division accounted for 56% of its revenue at $10.6 billion, while the US domestic market accounted for 43% revenue at $9.2 billion, the remaining 1% being DVD sales. With the rise of video-on-demand services, the whole industry was only going to grow and the pandemic boosted that growth majorly. While Netflix still does claim the short time growth will be canceled by the long time slower growth in the latter quarters due to the post corona effect. For the time being, Netflix is the champion of streaming services, and it's like most of the readers of this article already use Netflix.
3. WhatsApp
The Facebook-owned WhatsApp is already most of our primary messaging app, even if you're on IOS you're still likely to use WhatsApp just because of your friends on Android. So it was of no surprise that when people were stuck at home, the daily driver WhatsApp saw 40% growth in usages. According to a report by TechCrunch
Overall, Facebook-owned WhatsApp has seen a 40% increase in usage that grew from an initial 27% bump in the earlier days of the pandemic to 41% in the mid-phase. For countries already in the later phase of the pandemic, WhatsApp usage has jumped by 51%.
While for India the concern of fake WhatsApp forwards only rose, due to curators of such fake news having a larger audience to target. This only meant more profit for WhatsApp.
4. Steam
An unknown application for many, a favorite for gamers, Steam is like the holy grail for PC gamers. Owned by Valve software, the same company that released big titles like Counter-Strike and Dota 2, Steam is the largest digital gaming distribution platform on PC. So it wasn't of no surprise when the gaming platform saw substantial growth in concurrent users. A report from Statista shows concurrent users on Steam went from 14.15 million in September 2019 to 20.31 million in march 2020. In a more world view sense, it does make sense considering a lot of adults and young adults who barely got time to play their favorite game due to personal commitments, or play games with their friends, who are busy with their life, actually got an opportunity due to the pandemic. The same goes for university and college students stuck at home got a chance to play more hours of their favorite game with friends or try something new.
5. Swiggy and Zomato
For people staying alone and working long hours of shifts, apps like Swiggy and Zomato already were their daily driver. For some, it was a daily routine to order food from their favorite hotel in Hyderabad or hotel in Bangalore, after a long day of work, but for others normally they had a cook who would prepare their daily food. Due to the pandemic in many areas, especially highly contaminated zones like Mumbai, these young people have been left on their own demise. This is where Food delivery apps like Swiggy and Zomato have come to rescue delivering food whilst abiding standard WHO checks and procedures on their delivery personal. Swiggy and Zomato also have introduced a contactless delivery option. This allows your delivery personal, wearing masks and gloves, to deliver the food to your doorstep without you having the interact with them. These apps have actually allowed a lot of restaurants and hotels in Delhi, Kolkata, and Hyderabad to stat afloat during these tough times, as no one is physically going to eateries. Apart from that, one major reason for Zomato and Swiggy growing is their branching to daily groceries. This made the lives of many more convenient, as they didn't need to step outside for their groceries. Recently Swiggy and Zomato also have started delivering Alcohol through their main app. A customer is eligible to order they have completed the basic procedure to prove they're of legal drinking age, which requires an ID proof to be uploaded on the app. These tough times have cemented both of the top brands as going to apps in the minds of a lot of new consumers, who before were skeptical about the online ordering idea.
These tough times have really taken a toll on most companies, but the smart ones are coming out on the top. It isn't just them being lucky due to the purpose they serve, but also the fact they were able to capitalize on the opportunity the pandemic gave them. One thing this pandemic has made clear, if you are not ready to adapt to the situation, you won't survive.
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