How bad COVID-19 has hit the tech industry

The novel coronavirus COVID-19 so far has a devastating impact on the U.S. and many other state’s economies. As all the affected countries are trying to stem the spread of the virus, life seems to be slowly grinding to a halt. This grind has severely affected every industry, including food, travel, hotels, cinemas, automakers, oil and gas, sports, gaming, and technology.

While the industries have influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, some have brought into the world brunt of downturn considerably more than others. The tech business has presented a significant change because of the epidemic as the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization anticipations have suggested abstaining from working in production lines and outlets. A large number of jobs are at the danger of either a total misfortune or severely affected by the deadly infection.

As the flare-up powers the cancellation of each significant affair and occasion, the economic damage is mounting over the globe. The world economy has about gone to hellfire. Forecasters are proceeding to warn about the coronavirus potential to disturb the tech business. It was difficult to accept, for the tech goliaths, the reality of suspended shipments from China and the gross unpredictability in financial markets.

Coronavirus disrupted Tech Events

It isn’t only the COVID-19 itself that is causing harm. The strife it has caused in every market is additionally beginning to overflow into the actual economy. With the novel spread of coronavirus, tech conferences are being canceled, postponed, or turned into virtual events.

Earlier this March, Microsoft’s annual Build developer conference, which was going to held in May in the U.S, got shifted to online instead of in-person due to coronavirus. The event is supposed to be Microsoft’s most notable event as the company announces its new technology across various product lines. Microsoft had two happenings online, the MVP Global Summit and WSLConf, due to the outbreak.

READ: Apple starts sending Safari browsing data to Chinese Tencent

Apple WWDC 2020 event, which was going to hold this June, got canceled and will stream now online. The event involves a fully packed program to gain early access to the future of Apple platforms and engagement with Apple engineers. Apple was also expecting to have an event for its new product launch, like iPhone 9, in March, but then scrapped its activity due to ongoing coronavirus threat. 

Out of the concerns for the health and safety of developers, employees, and local communities and with the “shelter in place” orders from the local Bay Area counties, Google canceled its I/O event. It canceled the online conference in its place too. The event was much more about the new changes in Android, and Google-powered hardware and the updates to its services like Google Maps. Google Cloud Next 2020 postponed due to the federal and local governments’ orders regarding the COVID-19. 

Google News Initiative Summit that was going to happen in April, also got canceled due to coronavirus. “We regret that we have to cancel our global Google News Initiative summit but the health and wellbeing of our guests is our number one priority,” said Richard Gingras, vice president of news.

The social giant company, Facebook, canceled its in-person F8 – Facebook Developer Conference. The company then planned to shift the F8 event with locally hosted events, videos, and live-streamed content. 

Facebook also canceled Global Marketing Summit 2020 because of COVID-19 concerns. “Out of an abundance of caution, we canceled our Global Marketing Summit due to evolving public health risks related to coronavirus,” Facebook spokesman Anthony Harrison said in a statement. Previously the company also dropped out of the Mobile World Congress for the same reason leading to one of the big reasons for the show’s cancellation. 

READ: Amazon employee tests positive for coronavirus – in Seattle and Italy

Amazon Web Services canceled its AWS Summit San Francisco 2020 over COVID-19 fear. The summit expected to held in April at Moscone Center. Amazon, instead of holding the summit in person, plans to move it to digital streaming by May. 

Amazon has also canceled the event that mainly focused on machine learning, automation, robotics, and space. The re:MARS event was supposed to held in June in Las Vegas. 

READ: MWC 2020 is canceled as tech companies back off over coronavirus

READ: Companies are pulling out of MWC 2020 amid coronavirus concern

GSMA also canceled the much anticipated big MWC 2020 event because of the global concern regarding the coronavirus outbreak, travel and safety concerns, and many other circumstances. The event was scheduled for February in Barcelona. Every time the event brings together innovators and experts from across the connected ecosystem and proves that innovation is real without limits. Sony, LG, Ericsson, Intel, Nvidia, Facebook, Amazon, and many companies announced that they wouldn’t attend the MWC this year.

The outbreak cost the tech businesses and workers a heck

With the coronavirus episode, the world’s most exceptional tech organizations began dealing with how their organizations are being affected by the worldwide flare-up. 

As the world climbs the general wellbeing emergency, stated by the CDC, WHO, and local health care authorities, global organizations, are beginning to endure a shot, especially in the technology industry. Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google stocks began falling after the flood in coronavirus cases. 

READ: Apple fined a record $1.2 billion by the French competition authority

Apple said that with the restrictions regarding public health, work has resumed for quite a time. As a result, the company does not expect to meet the revenue guidance provided for the March quarter due to two main factors. 

Firstly, the iPhone global supply is temporarily constrained as the iPhone manufacturing by Foxconn ramps up more slowly than the company anticipated, so affecting the company’s revenues worldwide. Secondly, the demand for Apple products within China got affected. Apple stores in China got closed for a month due to the viral outbreak. The open stores were operating with reduced hours and with little customer traffic. 

READ: Nintendo Switch deliveries are late because of coronavirus

Slowly the demand for Apple products and services across the world also got affected as coronavirus continue to spread state to state. Apple sent back the majority of its workers, after it found its employees positive for coronavirus, and asked them to work from home. The company assumes no obligations to further update its quarterly guidance or forward-looking statements or information until the end of the crisis. 

Tesla also acknowledges that the new outbreak of coronavirus may have a material adverse impact on its business. In an annual financial filing, Tesla said that the company is obscure whether and how worldwide inventory, especially for car parts, might be influenced if such a pandemic perseveres for an all-inclusive timeframe. We may bring about costs or deferrals identifying with such occasions outside of our control, which could have a material opposite effect on our business, working outcomes, and monetary condition.

Zach Kirkhorn, CFO of Tesla, tried to downplay the likely impact of the health epidemic, saying that the company is shutting down for one or another half weeks due to the pressure from the government. He mentioned that the company will experience a slight impact on its profitability and assured investors that Tesla has sufficient cash to continue its expansion plans. 

READ: Tesla is halting production at Fremont factory in response to coronavirus

READ: Tesla takes $1.4 billion loan for Shanghai factory from Chinese banks

Elon Musk further added that he might not plan to raise the capital but would lower the cost of its battery production instead. Later, the constant coronavirus fears to change Tesla’s mind, and it announced to offer $2 billion of common stocks. Experts say that it was the right decision for Tesla to issue a secondary stock offering. 

Recently, the production work at the Fremont factory of Tesla also halted in the response of coronavirus threats and the lockdown orders by the government. Tesla is still going to make its best. The organization can utilize a little workforce at the Fremont plant, which it intends to make moves up to its Model Y manufacturing limit.

It’s watchable that with the constant outbreak of novel coronavirus, Amazon kept on stocking more than 100 millions of items to avoid any future disruptions. The company’s suppliers also cut back on advertisements and promotions on its website so that Amazon won’t run out of the products too soon. 

Amazon conducts the mid-summer mega sale every year. Though the company had piled up millions of items but still the fear of getting out of the supply is still there. Amazon has contacted its third-party merchants to come up with a reliable solution to keep the flow of its goods supply chain. 

READ: Is Apple siding with China over Hong Kong? Tim Cook writes memo as HKmap is down

As the majority of Amazon’s products greatly reliance on Chinese manufacturing, the company came in the spotlight that how the giant retailing company struggle with the after-effects of crises due to coronavirus. However, Amazon is likely to overcome the shortage now since China is gradually returning to normalcy. After fighting against the pandemic coronavirus attack, many companies in China are back to work. The manufacturing of a wide variety of products has started, and it seems like soon China, dubbed as the factory of the world, will be completely operational within the next few weeks. 

Other industries affected by the novel COVID-19 crises

The café business is one of the most presented ventures to significant change because of the pandemic. As people are gradually social distancing themselves, the restaurants and hotels have all closed globally. According to TechCrunch, Uber Eats is waiving delivery and activation fees in the UK to support restaurants hit by decreasing demand during the coronavirus crisis.

The tourism industry has also hardly hit by epidemic crises. The majority of the states have restricted international and domestic flights. The Airline Transport Association said that the U.S. and Canada airline industry could lose billions of revenues if the outbreak continues for long. 

Since every state government urges social distancing, the cinemas have also felt a substantial impact on the industry overall. After recommendations from the CDC and WHO, cinemas have no other choice but to shut down till the crises end. The U.S box office has earned a record break slump in its revenue. A few of the upcoming movies forced to live on the local TV channels.

The International Energy Agency predicted a decline in the demand for oil and gas. In the majority of states, where coronavirus has deadly affected the lives, people are working from homes and are avoiding travel. The reduced traveling activities caused a massive decline in the supply of millions of barrels of oil that ultimately lowers the oil and gas prices.

Around 150 organizations traded on an open market gave fair warnings to financial specialists about the risks that COVID-19 postures, with a few foreseeing they’ll miss enlightenment for the March quarter. 

With the China shutdown, the deadly coronavirus outbreak rattled the US tech industry and other industries. In consideration of current situations in China, let’s hope that the tech industry will revamp in double-quick time, and the global supply chain strengthens up. 

Featured image: Bloomberg