Extended Essay in Business Management

Title: The Impact of the Covid pandemic on 4 Tech-based E-commerce

Companies

Research Question: “To what extent has the outbreak of Covid-19 and the sharp rise
of E-commerce led to greater success or failure within the tech-driven E-commerce
industry?”

Words: 3925

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CONTENTS PAGE
INTRODUCTION ………………………………………………………………………………...……………3-5
METHODOLOGY …………………………………………………………………………………..………...5-6
BACKGROUND OF E-COMMERCE…………………………………………………………………..….6-7
SOCIAL ASPECT OF E-COMMERCE …………………………………………………………………...7-8
AMAZON ………………………………………………………………………………………………………..8-10
UBER …………………………………………………………………………………………………………...11-12
AIRBNB ……………………………………………………………………………………………………..….12-14
NETFLIX …………………………………………………………………………………………………....….14-16
CONCLUSION ………………………………………………………………………………………..…..……16
BIBLIOGRAPHY ………………………………………………………………………………………….….17-20

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INTRODUCTION

E-commerce is a popular means of managing, operating and marketing

businesses. In simple terms, it can be said that its main purpose is buying and selling
products or services utilising technology – via the internet or via telephone. It takes
more than one party to exchange currency for goods or services for a given transaction
to be successful, ie. there needs to be a buyer and a seller. The term E-commerce
stands for Electronic Commerce and it has certainly opened up many possibilities,
especially for new startups gaining more advantageous positions in the market through
leveraging cheaper, more efficient distribution channels. E-commerce nowadays is
divided into four market segments: business to business direct sale of goods, business
to consumer direct sale of goods, consumer to consumer, allowing a user to sell to
another – generally by using third party distribution channels such as Allegro – and
lastly consumer to business where the individual sells goods to companies, such as
some stock footage platforms.

In late February / early March of 2020, COVID-19 made huge changes not only to the
business world but to the entire population of Earth – its impact on society, economy,
health and many other aspects of human life is still being felt. It could be argued that the
pandemic, in terms of E-commerce, at least, has had a positive impact because it
forced people to shop online. This became one of the more popular – and one of the
few available – shopping options during lockdowns. When looking at the statistics, it is
clear that even in a relatively short period, there has been a dramatic change in
E-commerce growth measured by quarters. In Q1 2020, online sales growth reached
13.8%, whereas in the Q2 it exploded up to 43.7% which is almost a 30% (29.9%)
increase. Online sales growth has tripled.

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Figure 1

(Census,2022)

The reason for such dramatic changes in the E-commerce market is due to lockdowns,
which were imposed by most governments around the globe. During these lockdowns,
most stationary shops in many countries were closed. A sociological aspect seen
coming to the fore was fear among the population. This can be seen in the following
study shows that people tend to worry most about their family and friends, followed by
destruction of the healthcare system, economy and social order, among others.
(Quadros, 2021)
The tech industry has continued to develop and drive technological adoption among the
populace. For example, mobile phones have reached 84% penetration(Oberlo, 2021)
among the global populace, making it easier for people to purchase products/services
online.

Figure 2

(Obrerlo, 2021)

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Not only that, it is clear that running an online-channel-only business model is a cheaper
and more convenient way of structuring a business. This might, however, entail some
risk for certain companies and institutions, depending, among others, on their target
market, organisation type and marketing strategies.

METHODOLOGY

The text will focus on four companies: Amazon, Netflix, Airbnb and Uber. The aim is to
analyse the question “To what extent has the outbreak of Covid-19 and the sharp
rise of E-commerce led to greater success or failure within the tech-driven
E-commerce industry?” The data gathered for analysis has been taken from various
secondary sources such as articles, magazines, educational blogs and market reports.
Additionally, the researchers have used publicly-available interviews with the
companies’ owners as source material for analysis, which will provide a deeper insight
into answering the research question. By using a wide range of sources, the essay will
have a more objective point of view for the reader. The researchers will present financial
data in order to give the reader an accurate overview and understanding of the effects
of the covid pandemic on the companies in question.

The secondary sources used in this paper provide valid insight as they come from
articles, blogs and reports written by experts specialising in the field of E-commerce as
well as financial data published by the respective companies themselves. The sources
used in the essay are also reliable as they are not outdated and are relevant to
answering the research question, which may be relatively new for the reader.

During the writing process, the researcher faced a number of obstacles with retrieving
relevant, valid and reliable data, which were later used in the introduction and
discussion sections. Additionally, narrowing down an appropriate research question was
a challenge. However, the researcher and supervisor were able to ideate a question that

5
was broad enough such that a detailed analysis could be carried out, but not so broad
that a comprehensive discussion could not be carried out within our word limit.
The researchers will present financial data in order to give the reader an accurate
overview and understanding of the effects of the covid pandemic on the companies in
question.

BACKGROUND OF E-COMMERCE

In 1979 Michael Aldrich introduced a solution which was meant to connect telephone
lines with television and its viewers, which was the very first step towards E-commerce
in modern history. This system worked as follows: adverts featuring products and
services were shown on television, and viewers could call the order centre and
purchase the product or service. Not very long after that, in 1982, Mintel had a similar
structure to Aldrich's idea, however, it was based only on toll-free telephone lines and
did not need expensive TV advertising. It was a successful invention: up until 1990, it
attracted twenty-five million new customers. Unfortunately, in 2012 Mintel discontinued
its services because of market and technology changes, leading to low demand for its
services.

Another major step in the evolution of E-commerce took place in 1991 when the World
Wide Web was created and Breners-Lee had the first web page in the Internet. It
pushed E-commerce in a new direction. In 1992, Charles M. Stack opened the first
online marketplace called Book Stack Unlimited. While various online stores opened,
PayPal revolutionised the market in 1998 by introducing a secure way of accepting
payments from websites on the internet. After this, true E-commerce was in its nascent
stages, and many major companies which are well-known today, had already partially or
fully shifted into this direction. In 1999, the first B2C, B2B and C2C business models
were introduced in the form of Alibaba.com. Although this allowed Alibaba to offer many
such customer friendly options, delivery lagged far behind today's expectations, with
long delivery times. This, back in the beginning of the 21st century was normal,
however. In 2005, Jeff Bezos introduced a revolutionary service in his company,

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Amazon – 2 day shipping via its exclusive ‘Prime’ subscription, which was not only a
new feature, but a strong motivation for Amazon’s competitors to adapt. (McFerrin,
2021)

THE SOCIAL ASPECT OF E-COMMERCE

E-commerce is not only about buying online. It involves a myriad of other factors which
contribute to users shopping online. Oftentimes prices online are lower due to discounts
and coupons and the prices can be easily compared to a seller’s competitors by using
comparison websites such as Ceneo or others. In terms of payment method,
businesses mostly offer secure means of payment such as bank transfers. (Acowebs,
2019)

A major factor driving the popularity of E-commerce is its convenience: we can now
learn about a product via advertising or other means, immediately find it on our
E-commerce platform of choice, order it, and have it the next day or even the same day,
in some cases. All of this can happen from the comfort of our home, and pickup options
are becoming increasingly more convenient, with the advent of services like InPost, as
well as E-commerce platforms’ integrations with FMCG chains like Żabka, allowing
shoppers to pick up their purchases from many locations around them, perhaps even
allowing those with decreased mobility and disabilities increased, easy access to goods,
too – courier services also distribute goods sold via E-commerce, allowing to-door
delivery.

A trend that has also contributed to the increasing popularity of E-commerce is the
availability of a wide variety of goods from all around the globe, a result of more closely
interconnected trade relationships between nations and the imports of all manner of
goods. (Burns, 2020)

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One of the most concerning topics when discussing E-commerce is privacy. As opposed
to stationary shopping, it is easier to gather necessary personal data when buying
products and services online as the user can do it easily using a company’s website or
application. What concerns people is data corruption which may be risky for them,
potentially resulting in severe financial losses for the afflicted firm, such as a loss of
competitiveness and reputation, as well as potential financial losses for the user
themselves. Furthermore, a data breach might result in additional customer harm, such
as identity theft. On the other hand, when compared to other sorts of digital security
events like malware, phishing or denial of service, personal data breaches are less
common.

AMAZON BACKGROUND

The company Amazon was originally created by Jeff Bezos in the second half of 1994
and it operated as a website which was only an online bookstore. However, the mission
statement of Bezzos’s company was to expand and dominate the E-commerce market.
By growth the founder meant not only to make new locations of the business possible
but also to sell almost everything. In 1997 the company was worth 300$ million, and it
went public with a share price of 1.96$. The company has since grown considerably,
and has tried to become more customer friendly, opening the gates of third party sellers,
who were finally able to sell their products on Amazon’s website. Going back to the
evolution of E-commerce, Amazon revolutionised the market and set the new standard
by introducing the 2 day-shipping option mentioned above. (Podean, 2020)

From data gathered in 2021, Amazon dominated the US E-commerce market with a
market share of 41% . Looking back at recent historical data the growth of Amazon is
clearly visible. In 2016, the company’s US market share was 34%, growing in tandem
with the E-commerce market at large. (Statista, 2021)

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Figure 3

Amazon share of the US market from 2016 to 2021, (Statista 2021)

AMAZON – CHALLENGES DURING THE PANDEMIC

As mentioned before, the economic and social crisis appeared in march 2020, when
very little was known about the reality of the situation. The Covid crisis influenced
Amazon positively. Shortages of basic health equipment forced many companies to
change their marketing mix and so did Amazon. Due to the shortages in products such
as masks and soap all around the globe, Amazon had to put them as a priority in their
product range. Even more, Jeff Bezos’ company had to extend their ‘one day delivery’
(Amazon Prime subscribers' delivery time) to one month for non-essential items due to
high demand for specific health products. Amazon also took advantage of skyrocketing
demand and used a price gouging method which might seem unethical, however, due to
high shortages, the company had to implement such a course of action.(Edge by
essential, 2020) On the other hand, while many countries had obstacles with rising
unemployment rates, Amazon, due to struggles with fulfilling deliveries on time, hired

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over 175,000 new employees in the US between March and April 2020 and over 225,00
from March until the end of June of the same year. This may be interpreted as Amazon
being able to improve the economic situation in countries by providing jobs. However,
there are rising concerns about working conditions inside the company, as well as
‘union-busting’ policies and tactics, despite claims to the contrary. Due to the pandemic,
many restrictions were imposed on companies by governments regarding social
distance and basic health equipment. Amazon, however, disobeyed them. Workers of
Amazon claimed that half of the tables in the canteens were banned from sitting, people
had to stand, there were not enough masks and anti-bacterial gels which in this period
needed to be obligatory. (Palmer, 2020)

In 2021, Amazon announced that their revenue was $469.82 billion which is a 21.7%
increase in comparison to the previous year ($386.06 billion). Net sales also increased
significantly compared to the previous year – 12%, reporting $241.79 billion. As can be
seen from the quantitative data presented, the pandemic had an unequivocally positive
impact on Amazon, caused by internal business changes and more focus from its
leadership on handling this difficult period for the company. (Harris, 2020)

In order to diversify its incomes, cut costs, facilitate its further expansion and help
ensure future profitability, Amazon is developing many technologies and solutions.
Among these are its continuing development of AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML
(Machine Learning) solutions for businesses, Prime Air (its drone delivery service),
automated warehouses, where machines ourtumber people and of course its AWS
(Amazon Web Services) platforms, allowing for many cloud-based solutions for
businesses. (AWS, 2021)One of the threats the company faces are due to the
company’s anticompetitive behaviour in various markets, notably the US (Page
2021), as well as its union busting policies, which may draw the ire of regulators as well
as harm its public reputation.(Hamilton, 2022)

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UBER BACKGROUND

Uber is a company founded by Garrett Camp and Travis Kalanick in 2009, and is a
ride-hailing service that provides a mobile app, which may be used to request a trip that
is automatically delivered to a nearby Uber driver. The company was originally named
Ubercab, and in 2010 offered its services exclusively to users in San Francisco. In the
same year, the company raised surplus capital via an investor, which allowed Ubercab
to expand, introducing its services in New York and Paris. In 2015, the company
introduced a new service called UberEats which enabled consumers to have food
delivered to their location. As Uber expands, it has had to deal with several charges of
sexual harassment in the workplace in 2017, which gave the comapny bad press,
damaging the brand’s image. Due to legal obstacles and pressure from the board
directors faced by Kalanick, he resigned from being a CEO and was replaced by Dara
Khosrowshahi, former CEO of Expedia. Two years later, the new CEO of Uber took the
company public on the New York Stock Exchange, with initial share prices at $45 and
market capitalization of $75.5 billion. (O’Connell, 2019)

UBER – CHALLENGES DURING THE PANDEMIC

As the pandemic arrived, Uber fell into crisis together with other delivery companies.
The most affected sector of Uber was its ride-handling service which was caused by
social and economic trends going down such as demand, which was at its lowest level
in March 2020, when opportunity for Uber surged by 250%(Uber, 2020) which was a
catastrophe for the business. 95 million monthly users in the April-June period in 2019
dropped to 55million, a downturn of 42%. Despite the boom of the food delivery service,
UberEats, the company could feel the crisis. Looking at financial data, overall quarterly
revenue decreased by 29% year over year to $2.2 billion. The revenue generated from
the ride hailing service fell by 67% to $790 million. Unfortunately, Uber had to decrease
its costs, which resulted in cutting 6.700 jobs that generated $1bn. In the crisis quarter,
Uber Eats sales more than doubled to $1.2 billion, as people were frightened of the
coronavirus and would order the food home, rather than eat out. As seen, deliveries

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saved Uber from total collapse. After the period of lockdowns, demand rebounded in
cities where the virus is under control, according to Mr Khosrowshahi – the current
owner of Uber. Uber announced a $2.9 billion loss in the period of pandemic which was
a serious issue, even for such a giant brand. (BBC, 2020)Additionally Uber trialled a
service wherein its drivers would pick up prescriptions from pharmacies and deliver
them to users. The trials’ business impact is limited, as these services have not been
rolled out on a mass scale. (Uber, 2020)
According to the owner, Dara Khosrowshahi, he is certain that the company will come
back to its pre-covid situation and will grow even more. According to predictions, gross
bookings will rise from $25billion to $26billion, with a significant increase of gross
earnings from $25billion to $75billion. Uber intends also to increase its delivery capacity
by 25% year over year which will surely widen its locations of operations.
(Chang&Davalos, 2021)
In order to ensure the continued use of its services among increasingly environmentally
conscious and demanding users. (Forbes, 2021) Uber has pledged to be a fully-electric,
zero emissions platform by 2040. (Uber, 2021) The risk is the fact that these electric
vehicle fleets themselves have many issues in terms of sustainability, most notably the
way in which the rare earth metals used in batteries are mined (McKie 2021), the
negative environmental impact of battery production , the fact that batteries cannot
currently be recycled, as well as the fact that most of the electricity being used in such
EVs is still being produced using non-renewable means. (Whiteaker, 2021)

AIRBNB BACKGROUND

Airbnb is a company founded in 2008 by two housemates, Brian Chesky and Joe
Gebbia that created a website platform that offers home-sharing between online users.
The company's first name was Air Bed & Breakfast which later changed to its current
name Airbnb. In 2009, the owners invested capital into a business after creating
custom-made Obama-O’s and Cap’n Mccain’s cereal boxes from which they gained
money. After the investment of the owners, and $600,000 of surplus capital mobilisation

12
by Sequoia Capital, the company started to expand on a global scale over a period of
years. The great success has partially come from the company's flexibility by offering
coverage insurance to assist and protect hosts in the event that visitors damage
property or steal belongings while they are staying with them. This policy cost a
significant amount of $500,000 dollars in 2012, which doubled in the next year. Another
reason is the introduction of the new logo of the company in 2014 to the Bélo. After the
change, Airbnb made many other services available, such as running classes, city
tours, and various unique city experiences for anyone interested in booking them.
Jumping to 2019, the company planned to introduce hotel-like service with designated
Airbnb rooms which will turn out to be successful in the future. (KeyCafe, 2019)

AIRBNB – CHALLENGES DURING THE PANDEMIC

As expected, even the sharp rise of E-commerce could not save the company from the
negative impact of the pandemic. According to a study, landlords and hosts are in short
supply. The supply of users has more than doubled in the previous four years, growing
to 5.4 million active users in 2020, from 2.3 million at the beginning of 2017(Menze,
2021). Covid-related restrictions, which were in effect in most countries in the world, has
influenced Airbnb negatively. By april 2020, gross bookings in Airbnb dropped by 72% in
comparison to 2019. Even more, to improve the economic situation within the company,
the owners have decided to layoff 25% of their workforce which in the future will have a
positive effect.(Taulli, 2020) Short-term rentals on the platform have dropped
dramatically, which lowered the supply of service. In the USA between May 2020 and
March 2021 the steepest downfall of demand was Jersey City (-61%) and, with an
average drop of 32% across 10 American cities. As inflation grew up to 7% in 2021 and
the economic situation in the country got worse, the owners of shared houses had to
increase minimum days of stay. In N.Y, this value has changed by 237% from an
average 6.1 days of stay, up to 20.6 which is an uncomfortable situation for

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users(Kolomatsky, 2021). For now, the forecasts show that Airbnb is expected to
recover in 2022 after strong fourth-quarter earnings in 2021 (1.5billion, 38% increase in
comparison to 2019 data)(Airbnb, 2022). In january 2022, the platform had more
bookings than in summer 2019. The stock value rose by 3% with a current market value
close to $115 billion ($85billion in 2020) and a share price of $184 ($124 in
2020).(companiesmarketcap, 2022)

Figure 4

(Kolomatsky, 2021)

NETFLIX BACKGROUND

Netflix is a media and video streaming platform which was founded in 1997 by Reed
Hastings and Marc Randolph. In 2022, the platform will have 25 years of experience in
their field and it will be 23 years since the company started to offer an online
subscription service via the internet. The site functioned differently during this time –
users had to request the series or movie which was later delivered on physical DVDs.
Eight years later, Netflix started to offer some of its content for streaming online and by

14
2010 all its content was available on digital platforms only. In 2012, the platform was
available in the USA, Canada, Latin America, the UK and Scandinavia. As the
accessibility to the platform was expanding, Netflix started to produce their original
series such as “House of Cards” or “Narcos”, which attracted many new subscribers. In
2016, after its success, streaming services again expanded and were available in 190
countries around the globe. (L. Hosch, 2022)

NETFLIX – CHALLENGES DURING THE PANDEMIC

As the pandemic arrived, Netflix recorded the biggest growth in its history. As people
were staying mostly at home, especially at the beginning, the only way to entertain
themselves was mostly using electronic devices Netflix recorded 15.8 million new
customers in the second quarter of 2020.
Figure 5

(Kolomatsky, 2021)

As is visible on the graph above, the company had a steady growth of subscribers until
the second quarter of 2021. Subsequently, the value began to drop as many users felt
that Netflix’s content had begun to be less attractive and engaging than before. The
company stated that lack of new movies and series – resulting from almost none being
filmed due to the pandemic – resulted in a slump. As the releases in 2020 weren’t
delayed, in 2021 due to restrictions and obstacles in content production the premiers of
various films and shows needed to be cancelled or postponed. The company is
planning to spend $17billion on show production which will likely bring positive results in
the future. Nowadays, Europe is becoming Netflix’s main target as most of the new

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customers come from that region (1.71 billion). It will try to produce films and shows
which are related to the regional culture and will adapt to European needs and wants.
(Shaw, 2021)

CONCLUSION

As visible, the sharp rise of E-commerce and the outbreak of the Covid-19 Pandemic
has influenced technological companies both positively and negatively. The most
positively affected company, which appears in the researcher's analysis, is Amazon,
which had the biggest growth in comparison to all four companies analysed. It was
mostly the result of the Covid outbreak, which didn’t leave society a choice, but to use
E-commerce retailers in the period of lockdowns. Even more, strategies, such as
prioritising deliveries of medical equipment to the customer and enormous demand for
the business, were challenging but impacted the company in a positive way. Netflix was
another company in the research which has benefited during the rise of E-commerce
and the outbreak of pandemic. While people were bored, locked down in their homes,
Hasting’s company gave people a way to entertain themselves.

On the other hand, the ride hailing company Uber suffered, as people became wary of
travelling. Demand, especially in the second quarter 2020, slumped dramatically, and
Uber had to cut its costs to the minimum. Fortunately, Uber has another sector in the
company, UberEats – the food delivery service, which saved Garret Camp's company
from disaster. The most negatively influenced company, which the writers researched, is
Airbnb. After the outbreak of Covid-19 it had a dramatic downturn. When the travel
market was practically closed in the second quarter of 2020 and owners of shared
houses were nervous of newcomers, the company had to suffer. Fortunately, a year
later, lockdowns and restrictions were getting softer and softer, and the company could
slowly regain its pre-pandemic position.

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