COVID-19 turned the financial world upside down. The initial stages of the pandemic led to large-scale lockdowns, which led to unemployment figures exploding to 14.8% in April 2020. Citizens were left scrambling to make sense of it all, while people that had some cash leftover every month were suddenly cash-strapped and left struggling to pay their bills.
Even hospitals, which people have become reliant on to help them when they’re sick, started to struggle due to overwhelming numbers of people being admitted for COVID.
The population has also been tested, with many people abiding by mask requirements and those that tested positive but were asymptomatic wondering why people are so afraid to go out in public or why businesses closed.
COVID impacts different people differently, and even businesses are impacted differently.
As a global downturn is hitting economies across the world and governments try to prop the economy with stimulus checks and other measures, some businesses have managed to break revenue records.
Which businesses had some of their best quarterly and yearly earnings in 2020?
Zoom
Zoom calls have the pandemic to thank for enjoying a 367% increase in revenue at the end of the third quarter in 2020. The company benefitted from the work-from-home movement, as employers started to use Zoom to have meetings and client calls.
The company’s fiscal Q3 revenue was $777.2 million, with over 485% year-over-year growth in customers and over 10 employees.
Zoom has grown drastically in the past year, with substantial growth that isn’t likely to slow as video-first communication continues to be one of the most important parts of working from home.
In fact, West Houston is a prime example of big enterprises relying on Zoom. Known for being home to many of the world’s largest oil companies, big names have over 10,000 employees using Zoom and working from home, including:
- BP America
- Conoco Phillips
- Shell
The Energy Corridor business district, often overrun with employees filling businesses, rely on Zoom to bring communication together for thousands of corporate employees.
Amazon.com
Amazon.com has capitalized on the pandemic as the world’s largest retailer. Prime subscribers were able to have essential items delivered to their doors, many in two days, and stock for items across a variety of categories suddenly ran low.
The company was able to increase net sales in the US by 37% in the third-quarter and has capitalized on their own delivery service.
Whether you’re in Houston or in North Carolina’s mountains, you’ll find the Amazon Mercedes Sprinters delivering packages to doorsteps virtually everywhere.
In North America alone, Amazon has hired over 400,000 people to fill positions in warehouses, as drivers and everything in between. Amazon is one of the first companies to increase minimum wage to $15 and has sparked the same trend among other large retailers.
Jeff Bezos, the current CEO and founder of Amazon, has positioned the company for growth for the foreseeable future. Not only does Amazon sell virtually everything, they’re also one of the largest players in the cloud computing industry and are planning to launch their own satellite Internet service in the coming year.
Amazon is one parent company that has shown it will remain profitable, even while other companies are shutting their doors.
Car Insurance Companies
Car insurance companies started the pandemic by offering consumers rebates and discounts on their auto insurance. The practice helped put car insurers in the spotlight, as millions of people struggled to pay their bills.
The companies did help their policyholders by offering discounts, but they also benefitted from the pandemic.
An overabundance of people are driving less often and working from home. City streets are less congested and crowded, resulting in a huge drop in car accidents being reported across the country in 2020. Insurers benefitted from paying out less claims and being able to funnel a lot of that money back into their businesses.
Insurers are still stuck paying insurance policies, while the risk for the insurer has dropped significantly.
What does this mean for insurance companies? Higher profits. All we need to look at is Allstate’s Q3 earnings to see how quickly net income for these industry giants rose. The insurer posted a 26.7% increase in net income in the third-quarter, rising to $1.13 billion dollars.
The pandemic has changed a lot of what we know to be the “normal” in the United States. But we’re seeing a lot of companies that have become an integral part of people’s lives grow their profits. The companies mentioned above show how some business models are able to thrive even while others are showing they can lose their revenue overnight.
Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.