3 Industries that Will Boom After the Pandemic (and 3 that Will Fade)

When economic catastrophe strikes, businesses either pivot to change, or collapse if they don’t. Some industries have the cashflow to sustain a period of closure, but others will barely survive a few months of lost revenue, let alone ride out a couple of years of intermittent shutdowns.

Those unfortunate not to survive can rest assured, it’s not only their business that took a hit, but most of the industry they’re in.

Take stock of how industries are changing and seriously consider whether it’s worth re-investing to open a gym, clubhouse, or print company. There might just be more profits in growing tomatoes in your backyard to sell at a farmers’ market.

3 Industries Set to Boom

1. IT Will be Pivotal (but it’ll change drastically too)

IT (Information Technology) saw its first boom when the World Wide Web⁽¹⁾ became accessible. Businesses adopted it, trained staff in using Word Processors, building databases, and maintaining spreadsheets.

As the millennium came and went, businesses adapted IT from being mainly technological to being a sales tool too. E-Commerce was getting underway. By 2010, IT made another pivot into cloud technology. The exact technology that made it possible for businesses to operate during the pandemic, remotely, online.

Beyond 2020, the problem in IT is not getting people communicating and information shared. It’s doing that safely. Much of the work IT professionals will find themselves doing is locking down business critical data securely.

IT security is the biggest threat to businesses⁽²⁾ … right up there with financial cashflow management. Besides, it is a legal requirement for data protection. Get IT security wrong, bad things happen!

2. Online Dating Goes Remote

Tinder, one of the world’s biggest dating apps, was the first to roll-out video chat within the platform in October of 2020.⁽³⁾ Cue remote dating!

Meeting that special someone will never be the same again. Catfishing worries gone, as are the high-ticket dating prices for events, restaurants, tickets, coffee dates, etc.

Even better, no need to sit through awkward conversations on a bad date. Press mute, hand signal technical problems and cut the awkwardness short.

Set a date, a time, and log on to a one-on-one date from home. And get to peek inside where they live to see what they’re taste in decor is, the plants they keep (if they’re alive) how well-trained their dog is, or if there’s dirty socks lying at the end of sofa.

3. Supplemental Gardening

There’s nothing quite like witnessing the President of the world’s biggest Super Power announcing a National State of Emergency to the world. People panic, some stockpile toilet rolls and pasta in the short-term, but before long, attention shifts fairly quickly to the security of the food supply chain.

It led to a rapid growth of home gardening.⁽⁴⁾

For most people, it was just something to do during a lockdown. Not growing fruits and vegetables for sustainable living, but rather for supplemental gardening.

After all, if you’re going to learn a new hobby, you may as well learn about editable plants that can save some money on your grocery bills and have the peace of mind knowing there’s something there to nibble on.

Onions, celery, carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes, parsnip, etc. Small plants that can be grown in raised bed gardens, containers, balconies or even rooftops.

Industries Poised to Become Memoirs on Wikipedia

1. Cinema and Theaters

Shelter in Place mandates shut the doors of cinemas and theaters. Movie producers, ballets, orchestras, stand-up comedy artists, and musicians all took a hit. The movie studios, not so much.⁽⁵⁾

While Indie artists where shuttered at home with no stage to perform, left relying on donate buttons, Patreon subscriptions or GoFundMe campaigns, big hitters like Universal Studios, Warner Bros, and Disney were moving historical gears that’ll have ramifications for decades.

Selling worldwide rights to otherwise un-releasable movies that they’d already invested multi-million dollars in creating.

The short-term cash injection allowed movies to reach audiences at home. The longer-term ramifications will be a shorter window for debuts in cinemas. Rather than the standard 90-day maximum of exclusive rights before films release to VOD services, VOD licensing rights will be included in deals earlier.

Shorter exclusivity deals will mean shorter waiting times for viewers to watch at home.

Expect to see two price increases. One on ticket sales, the other on VOD services. Netflix and Amazon are no longer only vying for consumer spend. They’re attracting 7-figure backdoor deals from major Hollywood studios.

Consumers will pay the price.

There’ll be less streaming for under $10 monthly and certainly less homes with multiple smaller sized entertainment subscriptions, but rather more premium subscriptions, likely over $20 for a monthly family pass per platform.

The biggest losses to the entertainment sector: Stand-up comedians. It’s the one act that can’t be pulled off without a live audience. Everything else in theaters, (other than panto), can just about survive with streaming services.

2. Cord Cutting will Hit the Media Industry HARD!

Much of the media industry barely survived the last financial crisis of 2008. That’s looking now like a fairly mild recession with metrics like a 13% drop⁽⁶⁾ across all ad spend during recovering times of 2009. It’s going to be impossible to recover in the midst of a global reset with even bigger drops in revenue, and stiffer competition for the less ad budgets available.

Businesses are finding it more affordable and more effective to use digital advertising to reach consumers. Direct mail is decreasing.⁽⁷⁾ Radio advertising⁽⁸⁾ is down. Cable TV channels are switching to subscription models to counter the effects of dwindling advertising revenue.

The last nail in the coffin will be when streaming services win the rights to stream live sports. When that happens, cable TV will see the lights go down as people take stock of the actual channels they watch and see the savings of cord cutting - switching entirely to video on demand.

All other media, be it direct mail print ads, newspaper ads, magazine, or flyers, are likely to fall by the wayside. The entire world has had to learn digital. Even funeral directors can reach their target audience with digital advertising.

3. Gyms: The weirdest meetup hubs in history!

This is the one industry that COVID really shone the light on. When they closed the doors, companies like Peleton switched into high gear and actually helped people literally “ride out” a pandemic.⁽⁹⁾

Wearable fitness tech and internet-connected home fitness equipment was already poised to make gyms largely obsolete. A global shutdown prompted a massive surge of live streaming fitness sessions, group coaching, one-on-one online fitness sessions and basically a global fitness fest. People are taking up walking, doing yoga in the park, and cycling more, too.

Sales of home fitness equipment has spiralled rapidly and with that will be more fitness technology to follow.

There’s a better chance of the cruise industry recovering before gyms return to any type of normality.