As of Thursday, over 75,000 people have been affected by coronavirus and the death toll is now above 2,100. The Chinese government has also quarantined 50+ million people to prevent the virus from spreading.
Among all industries that have been impacted by this ongoing pandemic, the tech industry seems to be benefiting from the outbreak, especially the video games and streaming companies.
According to Tech in Asia, most of China's existing blockbuster gaming titles have seen a surge in play time and in-game purchases since January, which was further fueled by the release of new content by game operators. Tencent's
In comparison to other businesses, the home quarantines enforced by the Chinese government caused growth in screen time to double to that 20% rate from the normal growth rate of 8% to 9% in the preceding months. The raw number of users stayed steady because pretty much everybody in China already has a smartphone.
In addition, Tencent also provides video content, which for Tencent Video posted 32% growth. Competitor iQIYI, run by Baidu
NetEase
In general, Chinese customers spent 20% more time on their smartphones over the Lunar New Year holidays. The outbreak of coronavirus in fact helped boost this increase and made the streaming and gaming industry profit huge from this pandemic.