How Did Covid-19 Reshape The Market Economy In The UAE.

Industrial Revolution During the Corona Virus Pandemic:

Corona Virus, known as COVID 19 has brought an impact to the service industries in different countries in the world especially the airline industries as people had to maintain social distancing to prevent contracting the disease. However, there were big companies for the airline industry that had gone on huge loses as they only had to allow fewer customers to board their planes in order to maintain the rule of social distancing to prevent their passengers and pilots from contracting the deadly virus. Furthermore, most of the countries had closed their borders to halt international flights as they had the fear of their citizens contracting the deadly virus for they saw the examples of countries that lost a lot of lives due to the effect of the virus; an example is China and Italy. The yearly profits for airplane companies such as Fly Emirates had dropped as they were restricted from landing to other countries that closed their borders.

Restaurants and hotels had gone down in terms of business as the Corona Virus was known as a social disease, where it would infect anyone who communicates with another individual who has it and has not maintained social distance or has not won a mask and a face shield. Restaurants had to opt to giving food in terms of take away services or delivery to the homes of the customers which was a great boost to food delivery companies such as Zomato, Talabat, Deliveroo, and Careem. However, it was not an easy task to accept payment in form of cash due to the fear of contracting the virus, most of the payments were made through online platforms and credit cards for the safety of those serving the customers in the restaurants and in their homes during deliveries.  However, big companies had begun practicing e-commerce that was an online trade in order to maintain their entrepreneurship as most industries without the idea of e-commerce had begun collapsing as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A New Studying Method Developed During The Pandemic:

The pandemic had forced many institutions to remain closed as their governments had feared the rise in the number of cases that would make it difficult for them to manage to control. The students from various institutions were concerned with their course work and syllabus as they feared that may take quite a longer time for the cases of the virus to get managed. Online platforms were created by institutions to proceed with their education as they never wanted to lag behind in terms of their academic calendars. However, the online learning proceeded as the students were at their homes as they would see their teachers in the ‘big screen’ when they would be taught the important concepts in their course work.

The basics of computer knowledge were gained by the students during the pandemic as they would do most of their assignments online and submit them to their various instructors and professors. Besides, the online learning made the students remember the basics if their course work as some completed their education and had their graduation in the online platform as most of the institution administrations could not wait for the pandemic to end as they had a slight idea of it ending after a long period of time.  The students formed online group platforms where they would discuss their course work to enhance their study modes. Furthermore, students enrolling for universities applied for online courses during the pandemic for them to kick off with their coursework.

The Growth of New Computer Users:

The use of computer was not common to every individual as some of them were computer illiterate. Companies had opted to let most of their employees work from home through their various online platforms in order to maintain the rule of social distancing as they wanted to minimize the number of employees accessing the organization. However, not every employee had the knowledge of computer work since some of them had to learn from online platforms YouTube on how to access the various software they would use in accessing the work roles in the company profile. The students who were preparing on how they would have their online classes had to learn the knowledge on how to access computers and software that would help them in their education. In addition, it allowed a wide group of people to adopt online learning and taking courses from platforms such as Udemy, Masterclass, and many others.

The employees working in various restaurants and hotels received some form of training they would use in accepting orders from their customers who would not leave their homes to buy food. However, the managers of the food hotels launched the idea of delivering food through the online platforms where they created mobile applications for the food company that their customers would use as they make food orders. Moreover, companies had to conduct their meetings in the online platforms such as Zoom as they would not meet physical due to the rise of the number of cases of people who had the virus. On the contrary, the computer industries had grown as a lot of people begun to purchase new laptops and computers for the purposes of work and education.

New Tech Lifestyle:

Government institutions and private companies had opted to performing their services online as people who would apply for jobs would do it online as this minimized the number of people who accessed the buildings. Government legal and paperwork quickly adopted to allow consumers to apply through online websites and applications. This made it easier for government officials to protect themselves from contracting the virus and made it even easier for the people to do and manage their work from home. Moreover, government officials would hold online meetings with individuals who submitted proposals to them through platforms for them to get a better understanding of their projects. The companies that delivered parcels were very strict on sending letters to government offices as they were halted to doing that due to the fear of contracting the virus to the top government officials.

Rise of the Bigger Market Capital:

The lockdown of the virus in some countries made people interact through a variety of platforms. Online gaming and entertaining services had begun to rise during the pandemic as children would not be bored at their homes as they would be playing with their friends through the online platform. The online gaming made the children busy with their consoles as they would not want to leave the house or interfere with the household equipment when they played in the house; this gave their parents an easy task in managing their children. However, social media made it possible for people to make new friends in different parts of their country as they were restricted to operating from their homes due to the lockdown in some areas.

The Growth of Online Business and the Fall of Offline Business:

People begun opting for online shopping as they would purchase a variety of goods from the internet then they would get them in form of door to door delivery; however, the people who had the role of delivering the goods would hardly accept solid cash since they believed everyone they delivered the goods to had the virus. Moreover, the companies that dealt with internet money such as PayPal and bank credit cards had grown as the people would deposit their money in their bank or those platforms for them to make payments for online goods and services. Besides, the credit card companies such as MasterCard had also risen in the business as people would make their deposits for them to make payments for online items. The offline business had fallen as most malls would accept fewer customers at a time during the purchase of goods and services. Furthermore, most services in the offline business such as massage spas and salons had fallen as the service providers had a fear for contracting the virus. Bars and clubs had to go on a stand still as they had limited social distancing; this forced the governments of various countries to close them until the cases of those infected would go down to a number that would be managed by the nation. This has also led to the high increase in cryptocurrency adoption and people showed interest which raised the market cap and price of cryptocurrencies significantly, mostly Bitcoin.

Rashed Al Sheikh

I work on startups, eCommerce platforms, and game studio projects that aim to generate high revenues. We try to bring technology products that solve problems and enhance capabilities. The recipe for succeeding is knowing your demographics, your audience, why people need your services, and the economics of your place, Founder of GrinderScape which compelled over 1M registered members, and 15,000 unique daily logins. I also work and focus on real estate and cryptocurrency investments on the side.