Gaming is Booming 🎮

Make-up sales down, Lock-down 5.0 begins, and Disney to reopen parks worldwide.

May 30, 2020

Hi 👋, Tanvi here.

Filter Coffee is a newsletter that hits your inbox every morning with notable tech and business news scoops to jump start your day. Sign up below for free 👇

Let’s go ahead and get started:

Stock market summary:

US - S&P 500 up 0.48% 🔼
India - Sensex up 0.69% 🔼

The Boom in Video Gaming 🎮

COVID-19 has a new beneficiary. As lock-downs force people to stay indoor, people are turning to video gaming to spend time. So much in fact that stores are running out of consoles and gaming hardware. And the gaming companies are printing money.

According to internet company Verizon, U.S. video game usage is up more than 75% since the quarantine went into effect. Similar surge is seen in Japan and Europe.

The global gaming industry brings in $160 billion in revenue. That is 3 times more than Hollywood (yes, gaming is bigger than movies). 50% of the market is mobile gaming. The industry was growing at 10% growth rate before COVID, but now is set to double that rate to 22% in 2020.

All global gaming companies (EA, Activision Blizzard, Take Two Interactive) have come out with very strong business performance in this quarter, which has led investors to be excited about the potential the space holds. Experts argue that games will be part of regular entertainment for a lot more people than before going ahead.

Given the boom, even social platforms like Facebook, and internet companies like Google, Microsoft and Apple want a piece of the pie. The top tech companies have been buying small gaming players and key technology providers in the space. And now they are preparing to dominate the next chapter in the story, that of Cloud Gaming.

Cloud gaming is basically being able to stream and play games on your TV just how you stream YouTube or Netflix or HotStar. The purchase of a PlayStation console or an Xbox setup is a major cost barrier which stops a lot of casual gamers for playing. With the elimination of that, the number of everyday gamers will surge. Imagine sitting in your living room, clicking a button and being able to play any game for a fixed price like 100 rupees a month.

Moreover, technologists are betting that the next big thing in technology is the concept of “meta-verse”, which is an extension of gaming. The meta-verse is like living a life in parallel to your current life, but inside virtual setup. Simply explained, imagine being a farmer on Farmville, but along with your friends and family too. But beyond gaming, the metaverse will have other exciting things to do. Like starting a business or becoming a movie star and earning “currency” for your success.

In a way, we have already seen the success of “mixed-reality” with popular games like Fortnite, Pokemon Go and others. We're surely excited for the future here.😀

Sales of lipstick go down 💄

With the stay at home orders and majority of the people working from home, there is little need for make-up. Even if you do step out every once in a while, the mask most certainly ensures that you don’t need to put lipstick on .

On the other hand however, makeup retailers have seen a surge in demand for eye makeup as that’s the only part of the face that is exposed. Considering the fact that face masks will stay around at-least until we have a vaccine available, retailers are betting that the trend is here to stay and are scrambling to stock up on the in-demand stuff.

This major shift in demand is forcing makeup companies to invest more and quickly rewire their production systems to make more mascara, eyeliners, eye shadow etc. Industry experts believe however that lipsticks will make a comeback as they play more of an emotional role rather than a functional one. Business is surely fun.

Social distancing makes businesses creative 😷

People seem to have a lot of time on their hands and they are coming up with creative ideas to stay compliant with social distancing norms.

Burger King in Germany has come up with social distancing crowns. These crowns are huge sombrero styled hats which keeps the customers at a 6 ft. distance during dine ins.👒

Another Italian food chain has come up with a social distancing whooper which contains insane amounts of onion. The idea behind this is that the onions will give people bad breaths hence forcing people to stay away from each other. 👏👏

A restaurant in Sweden has only one table and serves only one person at a time. They serve food in a basket which is delivered using a pulley to minimize contact. We wrote about this the other day. Shoot us a note if a business around has a similar story 🙌

As lock-downs ease, the new age offices are here 👏

The corporate work experience is set to undergo a radical change once the pandemic ends. The Center for Disease Control has come up with a set of rules for phased openings of offices in the US. Here are some of the guidelines:

Temperature checks compulsory at work
Desks should be fitted with plexi- glass and should be 6 ft. apart
No crowding in the cafeteria
Masks mandatory at all times
Employees should use personal mode of transport
Regular ventilation checks of offices
Ramp up sanitation measures
Limited number of people in elevators

All these changes are set to upend years of training on building communication and client employee relationship. People will take quite sometime to get used to the new, which could drop productivity considerably Read more here.

We’ve almost neared the end of Lock-down 4.0 and many Indian states are still hotspots of the virus. Hence the government is looking at extending the lockdown.

However, we do believe that the new lockdown is likely to be more relaxed in a bid to restart the economy.

While the decision is still awaited, here are a few things we know:

Air and rail travel will be ramped up; more routes will be opened
Metros may function at lesser capacity
More shops might open
School for students of higher classes likely to open
10-12 CBSE exams will be conducted so students can be relieved

What else are we snackin’🍿

✈️Flights to run at Pre-COVID level from October

🎡Disney proposes phased plans to reopen parks

😌Last coronavirus patient discharged from New Zealand hospital

🛩️All electric aircraft made its first flight

Parting note, it’s the weekend fam. 🎉

Hope you took a thing or two away from this week’s issues. Please let us know any feedback and comments that you may have. Otherwise, enjoy the break! 😀

BTW - If you like the work, show us some love by clicking the heart icon below. And don’t forget to invite your friends.