How Asia’s Lockdown during Covid-19 will affect the Economy?

Trade, investment, growth, and employment are all affected by the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.

Covid-19 pandemic is anticipated to acutely slow the economic growth rate in Asia.

Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan have learned through tough lessons to combat the new coronavirus and a family of SARS. These countries are using their best strategies to handle their economy.

Bigger companies in conjunction with automotive, electronics, pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, consumer goods and many more have been highly affected. Covid-19 has affected the supply chain all over Asia. The main reason behind this is that China is a world manufacturer center of many things over the past many years.

Companies like airlines, cruises, travel, oil, online booking, food & beverages, etc have been taking a hit due to Covid-19 lockdown in major parts of Asia. The countries like Thailand, Japan, South Korea, and Vietnam would be the hardest hit, with tourism.

Complete stop on buying of non-essential goods and only purchase of important things is becoming a new normal. Brands have to adapt and be flexible to meet changing needs.

That’s why novel coronavirus is the perfect uproar for some companies and unicorn startups as well.

Let’s see the positive side of the economic recessions that happened years back!

The major companies like Apple, Microsoft, General Electric, IBM, Burger King, CNN, and Disney were all originated at the time of recessions. Airbnb was established in August 2008. Pinterest was established in December 2009.

Which companies are going to take advantage of the COVID-19 outbreak?

The Surge in Online Grocery Demand

• However, startups in many sectors are seeing a good rise in businesses in Asia. Indian e-grocery unicorn BigBasket take over competitor DailyNinja as Covid-19 lockdown comes into action. BigBasket also informs that there has been a double increase in their online traffic and revenue and there has been a 15-20 percent increase in basket value at the time of the novel coronavirus.

• Unicorn Zomato has jumped into e-grocery delivery services as the need for home delivery of grocery has automatically gone up in between 21-day lockdown in India.
• Singaporeans have a high demand for home deliveries as they practice safe distancing measures. The taxi and private-hire car drivers are permitted to do grocery and food delivery jobs.
• Redmart in Singapore is employing more staff for the delivery orders.

The Surge in Innovative Technology and Research Companies

• Korean private sector has developed real-time dashboards and mobile apps to increase public awareness at the time of the novel coronavirus. For example, Corona NOW gives data visualization of infected cases and shows one’s geographic nearness to the affected people.

The Surge in Telecommunication, Television and Online Industry

• Telcos companies are booming with Covid-19 outbreak because there is a sharp jump in demand for home broadband and virtual private network.
• At the time of lockdown, Videoconferencing is high in demand because people are working from home.
• Online Gaming and online education providers are all reporting a significant rise in users.
• Consumers of internet firms are beefing up during the novel coronavirus as people are spending time in their home premises during the lockdown.
• Amid March 21st-27th the first week of the lockdown, India’s total TV use skyrocketed by 37% to cross 1.21 trillion minutes, highest ever recorded in the history of Indian television according to a report by TV viewership monitoring agency.

The World Bank is estimating that the coronavirus outbreak will cause economic growth to slow significantly this year.

According to the World Bank’s base case, “China, the world’s second largest economy, would see growth slow from 6.1 per cent last year to 2.3 percent this year. In the worst case scenario where the virus keeps disrupting activity for many more months, the negative 0.5 per cent drop for the region would include economic declines of 2.3 per cent in Indonesia, 4.6 per cent for Malaysia and 5 percent.”

It is a good opportunity for all unicorn startups and innovators whose novelty can bridge the gap between the demand and supply of essential items to fight the Covid-19 pandemic and contribute to Asia’s economy in these critical times.