When the economy was shut down last year due to the spread of Covid-19, many industries suffered. Starting from the tourism industry, and through many other vital sectors such as the catering business, the music industry and countless others have been hit hard by the pandemic.
However, there are also some other sectors which have benefited from the situation, and most of them are related to the IT industries. No matter if we’re speaking about an important e-commerce or an online bookmaker, the growth of this sector is just unprecedented.
But let’s start from the beginning and see what is the definition of an information technology industry, and why it became so important today.
The IT Industry
When we are speaking about the IT industry, we are speaking of any business model based on a computerized collection, processing, distribution and use of data and information.
Today, most industries have adopted IT tech to some extent. Many old industries, such as in the case of brokerage services or the betting world, have started to use the newest IT technologies, while there are also cases of new IT industries born from technological advancement itself.
The following are some of the most important examples of IT industries that registered incredible numbers during this crisis.
Online Stock Trading
One of the most lucrative sectors ever during the COVID-19 outbreak, online stock trading has seen some of the best uprisings in terms of new traders affiliated with a broker and the general growth of this sector.
To put it in perspective, the eToro socialplatform has today a total of 20.6 million retail traders, with 5.2 million new accounts in the whole 2020 years only.
That’s also a natural consequence created by the unique moment lived in 2020 for retail trading of an increased market volatility, severe stay-at-home orders and a general zero commission fees accepted by top-tier brokers across all the industry.
Due to the fact of being a booming-sector, frauds are also increasing. To avoid this problem, most customers are asking for regulated-only brokerage services before opening an online trading account.
E-Commerce
The 2020’s growth caused by the Pandemic in the digital and e-commerce sectors are unprecedented.
As the anti-Covid measures slowed (and in some cases shut down completely) most retail stores and the like. In other cases, the restrictive measures stopped people from going outside due to stay-at-home orders, or made it impossible to buy in person products from stores which were not considered essential business.
The only natural consequence was an incredible growth of the e-commerce industry, with Amazon leading it with a record performance in 2020 with annual revenue up 38% to $386 billion, which means a yearly increase of over $100 billions compared to 2019.
Online Sports Betting
The Pandemic had a very significant impact on the sports betting industry, both in negative and positive ways.
For example, in the first months of the epidemic crisis in Italy, the Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) reached extreme lows due to the suspension of all sports championships and sports betting shops were closed.
That being said, most indicators showed that online sports betting has been growing since the start of the crisis, with mobile betting increasingly popular among betters. Europe’s online gambling market is expected to grow by 7% for all 2021 and reach an astonishing 36,6% of total gambling revenue by 2025.
Today there are more than 16 million online customers in this industry, and 63% of them used at least one safer gabling tool during 2020: an increase of 37% compared to the previous year.