A Rise in Online Meeting Platforms
COVID-19 has changed our daily lives so much, with one major adjustment being the limited exposure we have to other people. There has been a major increase in the use of online video services, people working from home, online school, and restricted travel. COVID-19 was an unprecedented circumstance, and the transition to a completely digital world was slow.
Many people have used the increased time at home to spend time with their family and to appreciate the people around them. Along with close family in the house, people have also used a lot of online meeting platforms to 'see' and talk to their family, who they might not talk to often. Being able to use the technology has helped the world stay connected when people are so far apart.
Online meeting platforms have also been used for working remotely. Being able to work from home has kept people connected and allowed for the economy of many countries
to stay alive. Platforms such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet have seen huge increases in users, and "Zoom usage has soared from 10 million daily meeting participants back in December to 300 million this month," according to The Verge. With the significant increase in using the online meeting platforms, the stocks of those companies have also soared. Zoom stock has gone up an impressive 414% in the past year. Google Meet and Teams have seen minor increases as the online meeting platforms make up minor parts of their overall organization. The stock market has seen a wild ride this year.
With great change comes the question of how things would change if suddenly COVID- 19 no longer became an immediate issue. Would we go back to sharing handshakes? Would more people start to work from home? Will school go back to in- person classes? It is difficult to predict where the world is headed, but one thing is for certain: things will never be exactly the same as before.
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