The Fate of Businesses During COVID-19

By Sabrina Kim

St. Margaret's

It is without question that COVID-19 has had a major impact on the ongoing businesses around the world so far. Seeing that almost all businesses require people for it to run and people for there to be customers, the restrictions of quarantine that are making these necessities no longer possible are really taking a toll on the economy of the businesses. However, beyond this basic overall issue that speaks for all these companies and stores, there is more than just one perspective and story in this situation. This is because for this specific global pandemic, there are certain businesses that can more easily adjust to the conditions, and there are also some that can’t even function at all during this time. 

Industries that are being less impacted by the pandemic include, social media platforms, online entertainment, health and life insurance, e-commerce, and more. While, on the other hand, industries such as manufacturing, transportation, retail, and so on, are being a lot more affected by COVID-19. A lot of factors that play into why some businesses are doing fairly better at this time can include how much person to person interaction that is needed for the company to run, how much portion of the business can be run or continued online, and what the purpose of the company is. 

Netflix is an example of a company that is on the more advantageous side of things during the pandemic. Founded in 1997, Netflix is a production company and a streaming service, or more simply put, a platform where members can watch a large variety of TV shows, movies, and documentaries from countries around the world. As this company falls into the category of technology and entertainment based companies, there is not a lot of interaction needed for there to be a lot of customers. There were still some consequences Netflix faced with the pandemic such as a pause in the production, which also delays the creation of promised releases. Yet, they are also receiving the better outcomes of things more than other companies. Due to people being confined in their homes and not being able to continue their regular outside summer activities, a lot resort to other things such as Netflix. Even though before the quarantine they were an extremely successful business, COVID has definitely increased their subscriptions and given them opportunities to add more upgrades to the platform such as Netflix Party.

COVID-19 is a time where people need to be focusing on their and their families healthcare and constantly trying their best to adjust and better the peoples’ and our own lifestyles. But if we  look beyond more than just our comfort and health, it is clear how much the pandemic has affected things such as businesses. Whether that effect was a positive or negative one varies on what and where the business is.