The digital future has long been talked about but the pandemic has brought it a big step closer. For millions, technology has been a lifeline in a new, socially-distanced reality. All over the world, consumers forced to stay at home have tuned in to Netflix, ordered from Amazon and dialled in to Zoom calls. In the US, less than 5 per cent of grocery shopping took place online before the crisis but this has surged to 10-15 per cent. Zoom says peak numbers using its video conferencing app in April were 30 times the level in December.
Some of this may recede after the exit from lockdown. But the changes under way in remote working, learning and shopping are striking. As Satya Nadella, chief executive of Microsoft, said recently: “We’ve seen two years’ worth of digital transformation in two months.” The role Big Tech has played during the crisis is reflected in the surging share prices of the companies as investors have bet on their business models. Five of the big-tech stocks now constitute more than a fifth of the value of the S&P 500 index — a modern-day record in terms of concentration.
For the companies, the crisis has not only cemented their market power but provided an opportunity to show that they can be responsible corporate citizens. The pandemic has underlined the benefits of these digital platforms both socially and economically, in helping to fight disinformation about Covid-19 as well as in handling the ecommerce boom. Governments, meanwhile, have looked to Big Tech to help with the development of contact tracing apps.