You might view it as people being terrified or taking precautions, countries at present are against the idea of gathering people in one spot. Events such as concerts, sporting activities, weddings, etc. which had been organized have either been postponed or canceled. Business trips have also been postponed. Most employees have been advised to work from home. For those whose jobs can’t be done from home, or the unemployed, are left to just staying at home, doing various tasks such as playing treasure box. We can say that this virus is testing individuals’ ability to carry out various activities without leaving their houses.
Some individuals believe that the end of the world is nigh, whereas others think that it is just a hoax. In any case, unless you live in a vacuum, you’ll know that the economies of different countries are being greatly affected at this moment. Most people will be affected by this.
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Role of Technology
In Asia for instance, when it comes to the role of technology, ACCESS, the crypto industry association in Singapore was compelled to begin to work differently in February. This is as a result of the raising of the Disease Outbreak Response System Condition (DORSCON) level from yellow to orange. Whereas events were being canceled, ACCESS, together with the Singapore FinTech Association was about to conclude plans to conduct a workshop with the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
With an urgent need to start issuing novel operating licenses, the workshop could not be canceled. There was a suggestion that the workshop should be conducted via Zoom, a cloud-based video-conferencing application. People weren’t sure whether the app could accommodate the huge number of people (almost 300 participants). Nonetheless, the workshop was successfully conducted. The use of internet technology made this event a success.
WFH Technology
While WFH (Work From Home) might now be the in thing in the corporate world, it’s not something new. The manner in which we link up, communicate, plus work together has been changing for a while now. We are comfortable talking with complete strangers in divergent time zones through various online platforms such as Telegram, WhatsApp, FaceTime, and Facebook. The use of Zoom by ACCESS and its partners to conduct their workshop is a good example of this social phenomenon. Work from home technology is poised to play an important role while we try to deal with coronavirus.
Whereas more individuals continue to utilize online collaboration tools, these purported stay-at-home stocks have greatly benefited from the coronavirus. For instance, Zoom hit a record-breaking high of $125 in March (an increase from $68 at the beginning of January). This can be likened to the way in which the SARS pandemic of 2002 to 2003 led to the growth of the Chinese internet economy.
With shopping centers empty across China, and a great number of people stuck at home with a newly installed internet connection, individuals began surfing the web. They did it in large numbers, thus hastening the taking up of internet technology. There were some businesses that changed their business models and came up with products that were in line with the changing environment. It was during the outbreak of SARS that a tech company called Alibaba changed its business model to consumer-focused from a business-to-business one. This was as a result of the huge number of people learning how to utilize internet technology in the home. Later on, the technology company unveiled Taobao, an online shopping site. Presently, China is a leader in e-commerce. In addition, with 711 million yearly active retail utilizers, Taobao is the largest e-commerce website in that country.
The success of Alibaba shows how a health crisis around the world can bring about change in the way in which we do some of the days to day activities. Generally, we as humans tend to be afraid of change. It can be said that we abhor change. Nonetheless, humans can be inventive. When we are cornered and don’t have any other option, we tend to look for other ways of surviving. At times, we end up liking those new methodologies even more than the previous ones. We even begin to wonder why we didn’t utilize those approaches in the first place.
Conclusion
There you have it. With regard to the present situation concerning the coronavirus pandemic, it is conceivable that we are heading towards a novel era of profitability. In this new era, we’re likely to utilize tools such as smart home technology to the maximum. Flexibility might be the norm. We will come up with novel techniques of networking virtually, while at the same time thinking about the way in which physical human relations are measured. Are there any coronavirus infections in your area? If employed, have you been told to work from home? What future home technology do you think should be implemented in your industry?
