E-Commerce and Entertainment Industry Impaired By Covid

Abstract

The covid 19 pandemic has had a dualistic impact on media and entertainment (M&E). When we look at the services of our industry, it is clear that covid has been a boon to services like e-commerce, entertainment, etc., while it has become detrimental to production companies that have drastically closed down, cinemas have closed down, etc. In short, one can conclude that whatever the process, consumer segment or product, they have all been directly or indirectly affected by this pandemic [1].

Introduction

I. INTRODUCTION

Comparative analysis of the PRE COVID and Post COVID Effects on the various Industries. The comparisons are purely on the basis of the pre and post scenarios various industries and their effects

A. Home Entertainment on the Rise

Streaming services and the broadcast networks are potentially one of the very few sectors that are set to withstand or even benefit from the coronavirus as it continues to spread. [2]

In-home viewing is on the rise on multiple devices and various distribution outlets.BARC India released its annual viewership report for the year 2020, highlighting 9% growth in the TV viewership. The report said that 2020 was a year marked by a substantial jump in television viewership and the average time spent per day per viewer jumped from 3 hours 42 minutes in 2019 to 4 hours and two minutes in 2020 as families were homebound for an extended period during Covid-19 lockdown.(1) The OTT sector in India witnessed a 30% rise in the number of paid subscribers, from 22.2 million to 29.0 million between March and July 2020.COAI Cellular Operators Association of India are asking Hotstar, Netflix, Amazon, etc. to request streaming content in Standard Definition vs. High Definition. Overall, the top five metro cities accounted for 46% of the total OTT video platform users, while Tier I cities accounted for another 35% users in July 2020.As the coronavirus-led lockdown affected the consumer theatre experience, moviemakers are adding new releases to the OTT platforms. [3]

According to a report, the Indian OTT market is set to reach Rs 237.86 billion (US$3.22 billion) by FY25, from Rs 42.50 billion (US$576.73 million) in FY19.India will have 500+ million online video subscribers by FY23 and this number is likely to grow with increased smartphone and internet penetration. Going by the current trends, a diversified content portfolio and various pricing plans would help OTT players gain more paid subscribers. [4]

OTT platforms such as Disney and AT&T are focussing on OTT content delivery to provide customers with exclusive services, while key national players such as Zee, ALT Balaji and Reliance Bigflix are taking efforts to move from conventional media to OTT-based services.

In 2019, Netflix announced a mobile and tablet-only plan for just INR199 per month to capture new subscribers; however, despite this new plan, Netflix is quite expensive for the price-sensitive users. In May 2020, Amazon Prime Video announced the direct-to-digital release of a few Indian movies and ZEE5 also announced that it has lined up 15 direct-to-digital releases for FY21.(2)

B. Future Aspects of the Entertainment Industry

OTT viewing will be an even bigger factor than it is today for various reasons. One reason is that the number of OTT channels is rising rapidly, the study found. Another reason is that content providers will start using the technology to get personalized data from their customers. Nearly half of OTT viewing will be done on mobile devices, and about one-fourth will be on PCs, with the remainder split between accessing OTT content on gaming consoles and other devices like smart TVs and streaming media players. A viewing will extend beyond the TV screen. This interactive viewing will bring people deeper into the experience and be more immediate and compelling. Coupled with the on-demand services, they will be more personal, engaging, and entertaining. The consumer experience will include ‘beyond-the-screen’ (BTS) content, such as Second Screen, interactive TV, and peer-to-peer content that viewers themselves could create.OTT Viewing will be a prevalent feature of most of our daily activities. According to the study, nearly 80% of Internet traffic will be OTT traffic in the future. [1]

II. THE RISE IN THE GAMING INDUSTRY IN PRE COVID TIMES

India's growing gaming industry is worth $930 million and is the world's number one.In the first nine months of 2020, India ranked first in mobile game downloads worldwide, reaching 7.3 billion installs and achieving a 17% market share by install volume, according to SensorTower data. More than 50% of India's population is below 25 years of age and 60% of the players in the country are below 25 years of age. The gaming user base exceeded 365 million in March 2020, according to a KPMG media and entertainment report. [4] The COVID-19 pandemic has seen a shift in media and entertainment consumption trends, with KPMG estimating a 20% decline in 2020 in typical segments such as film, television and print. In contrast, they foresee a rapid change in gaming and digital media consumption, projecting global growth to increase by up to 33% to reach $25.4 billion in 2021.An Inc42 report on the eSports landscape found that eSports in India represents 4% of the national user base and accounted for just over 9% of industry revenue before the pandemic. The sector is expected to grow by 36% YoY over the next three years, with a projected revenue of $95 USD for 2020. The Indian eSports audience for competitive tournaments has already reached 17 million in 2020, up from 6 million in 2017.Games like valorant, PUBG, CODM, Pokemon Unite have already created a very large support base of players and fans that regularly organize international tournaments with hefty prize pools. Recently, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for the development of content promoting indigenous Indian culture. The Government of India is also expected to create industry-academic interfaces to foster new career paths in gaming and build a substantial talent pool in the sector. [5]

A. Post Covid Effects and Also the Future aspects of the Gaming Industry

The online gaming industry is experiencing rapid growth from 87.8 billion in 2020 to 200.3 billion (expected) in 2024. Growth in this sector is driven by new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and computer vision. These technologies alone have created a huge global market. They are also poised to become the future of game development, making a significant impact on the gaming industry in India as well as internationally.

The gaming sector is preferred in three ways, mobile, tablet, desktop and console, where PC currently contributes 23% and will drop to 20% and more in 2022. Console games have a share of 31% and mobile and tablet combined 46% of the total gaming sector, which will increase to 50% in 2022.

The biggest trend in gaming is that multiplayer games have taken off. Friends, family employees connect remotely also to play games like Ludo. People watch games to socialize and connect. [5]

Age and gender dominance is likely to improve in the near future. Online gaming will soon see a shift in the age and gender composition of the total population since the huge untapped market is likely to experience this world of gaming. Cloud gaming is going to get very popular especially in India. All people would need to have is a stable internet connection and they could get an experience of gaming like never before. Freemium companies will help the industry to get better economic conditions. We are a very price-sensitive market and freemium gamers would continue to search for alternatives if the companies start charging for premium services.

Emerging technologies will help our country to uplift the gaming industry even more. The use of artificial intelligence augmented reality in games, virtual reality, modular technology, and cloud based gaming infrastructure will be the key drivers of the gaming industry in the future. [6]

III. E COMMERCE INDUSTRY

A. Background Study

E-commerce stands for electronic commerce.it is a process by which businesses and consumers buy and sell goods and services through an electronic medium.it emerged in early 1990’s but has gained popularity now a days. Nowadays almost every company has its online presence, having an online presence for a company has become its necessity. E-commerce has helped a lot of small business to come into existence. Through e-commerce companies allows consumers to purchase a variety of goods and services online from businesses and other companies. [6]

1. Advantages Of E-Commerce

a. Faster buying and selling procedure as well as easy to find products.

b. Buying and selling of goods is available 24 hours and 7 days.

c. There is no geographic limitation i.e more reach to the consumers.

d. Cost of operation is also low when compared to traditional commerce.

e. Better quality services. [7]

f. Company need not be set-up physically.

g. Easy to extend and manage a business.

2. Disadvantages Of E-Commerce

a. Lack of knowledge in rural area.

b. Lack of internet facilities.

c. Loss for retailers. [8]

d. Trust issues arises on online goods as touch and feel is missing.

e. Chances of fraud also arises.

f. Lack of face to face interconnection.

Internet has widely spread for the businesses where in they sell and buy products online without face to face interactions [9] Covid era has given online shopping a boom as no one was allowed to move out of their houses other than for necessary goods. These E-commerce sites have made us reach to things easily. The usage of the e- commerce sites have raised a lot of revenue in this COVID period and we’re one the beneficiaries of the pandemic. The pandemic has marked a inflection point for these e-commerce websites in India.

During lockdown there was a huge push towards this and had called up for a lot of new buyers and sellers over to these platforms (2).

IV. APPLICATIONS  OR WEB PORTALS WHICH CAME UP FOR DIFFERENT SERVICES:

1. Medicinal: New applications for different purposes came up like net meds, 1 mg.  These apps came up for pharmaceuticals service. Earlier in their time they were struggling with their incomes due to availability of physical chemist but due to this pandemic they got a lot of increase in their sales and earned good profits. Earlier everyone use to go on offline stores to purchase things but now we can order the medicines online and they are made available to us in just 2-3 hours. [4]
2. Grocery: New applications like blink it, Zepto, big basket etc came up for grocery at doorstep during lockdown these applications assured people with no-touch delivery and delivery at door step. These all facilities supported people not to go out during this severe pandemic. These applications made doing work from home easier. People now do not have to take out time from their schedules to go to grocery they can order them online and get them at their doorstep according to their own convenience.
3. Fitness application: During the severe pandemic gyms and fitness classes were closed due to which online classes came into the picture. Downloads for the online fitness applications grew Upto 46% worldwide. Online fitness application we’re available before COVID-19 also but people preferred to go to the classes’ offline only. Online classes has made people do the workout at their own comfort. [1]
4. Educational apps: Applications like zoom and google meet came during the lockdowns, before covid only very few people new it’s existence but due to covid all the school got shut down and offline learning got transferred  to zoom or google meet online learning. The usage of these has increased tremendously during covid and even after covid people are using for the distance Meeting and other purposes. These applications have made people meet each other easier. When it comes to work from home all the work is done with the help of these applications only they are at the key role. [7]

V. FUTURE

E-commerce is expected to grow at a more faster rate in future as India is a developing country and has not gained as much demand for e-commerce when compared to develop countries but with development in living standards of people and technology it will lead to a rise in demand for e-commerce-commerce’s reach will increase to the small towns and villages as well-commerce in the future is expected to take over some part of our physical retail stores. All age groups have shifted to online due the pandemic and it is expected that a lot more people will get aware about online facilities and will join this online shift. This online marketplace has become permanent and will grow for better. Due to covid, the world has become more digitalized than ever and will become more in the near future.

References

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Copyright

Copyright © 2023 Nehal Jain, Bhavyay Gupta , Bhavna Galhotra. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.