Thread by @FLAHAULT

1/9 - “When the first #COVID19 lockdowns were imposed outside China, billions of people around the world were forced to look online for communication, collaboration, entertainment and sustenance.”
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2/9 - “Around the world and across many categories, a unifying theme was that leading sites and services benefited most — the big just kept getting bigger. The exception is Zoom, the underdog video app that became a verb; even Microsoft’s Teams could not slow Zoom down.”

3/9 - “The surge in broadband traffic in March and April was so extreme that some video services, such as YouTube, were forced to downgrade streaming resolution to preserve bandwidth — an unprecedented move.”

4/9 - “Even after lockdowns began to ease in some parts of the world, online activity — where internet access was available — remained elevated, and the second uptick in November was almost as large as that of the spring.”

5/9 - “However, not everyone was able to go online when lockdowns curtailed their real-world activities. Even in India and China, there remain hundreds of millions of people without regular connectivity. Africa’s internet penetration still lags far behind the rest of the world.”

6/9 - “Even though there was little scope for real-world socialising and dating, the pandemic only accelerated the growth of the leading social and communication apps: Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Twitter.”

7/9 - “Netflix’s outsized performance also proves the value of being the default choice in any given internet category.”

8/9 - “Amazon’s dominance of online retail and Prime shipping perks made it the go-to option when the high street was forced to shut down. Overall, analyst group eMarketer estimated that US ecommerce grew by 32 per cent in 2020, to 14 per cent of total retail sales.”

9/9 - “
Food delivery apps were among the hottest tech companies of the year.
Exercise-tracking apps: as gyms were forced to close, a striking change in mobile habits was seen among workout apps such as Strava and Nike Run Club.”