2020 has been a very eventful year in the innovation landscape as it ushered in new ways of thinking and doing business.
Here are five events that you could say, defined the new way of doing things in innovation and business.
COVID-19 Pandemic
The Corona virus (COVID-19) is said to have started in Wuhan, China and as it spread round the world, it created a “new normal”. As early as February this year, organisations cancelled physical events that necessitated people gathering in large numbers. Organisations ditched physical events in favour of the online formats. For instance, Facebook cancelled its F8 Developer Conference 2020 in February while Google cancelled the physical part of Google Cloud Next ’20
The search for a vaccine was also another awesome feat as it only took about 9 months for vaccines to be developed compared to the minimum of 4 years it would have ordinarily taken.
On the 9th of November, Pfizer and BioNTech announced that its COVID-19 vaccine, BNT162b2, was found to be more that 90% effective in preventing COVID-19. And on the 2nd of December, UK became the first western country to approve the use of Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine
The boom in online businesses
With companies ditching physical events and lockdowns in some countries, there was a rise in the activities of online businesses such as video conferencing, online sales, online delivery, online gaming.
A remarkable company that rode the boom in online businesses is Zoom, a company that provides video telephony and online chat services through a cloud-based peer-to-peer software platform and is used for teleconferencing, telecommuting, distance education, and social relations.
Zoom went from being a niche business software popular among tech companies to the way people did just about everything.
This time last year, Zoom had an average of 10 million daily meeting participants. It now has 350 million. Zoom was the most-downloaded iPhone and iPad app of the year, beating perennial favorites like Instagram and YouTube.
ZOOM reported net profit of $185.7 million for the quarter through July 31, up nearly 3,300% compared with a year earlier. Revenues in the quarter were $663.5 million, up 355%.
Another company that has gained a lot during this pandemic is Amazon. Amazon focuses on e-commerce, cloud computing, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence.
Amazon reported blowout third-quarter results in October as the pandemic sales boost helped the company triple its profits amid a 37% increase in earnings. The company’s revenues of $96.15bn were better than analysts expected and its net income increased to $6.3bn in the third quarter, compared with net income of $2.1bn in third quarter 2019. The company hired more than 375,000 employees to keep up with demand
The Black Lives Matter movement
‘I can’t breathe’, the first time this infamous statement went viral was minutes before the death of Eric Garner who was killed by some men of the NYPD. Eric Garner was one of the many victims of police brutality and racial profiling.
A week ago, in a similar manner, George Floyd, another black man repeated the same words as he struggled for his life while his neck was pinned down by a white police officer, Derek Chauvin. The video lasted about 9minutes and we all watched George Floyd take his last breath – just like many others who are victims of a decayed system.
This video sparked a spate of riots across America and even spilled over to other countries. Phones and the internet were used to spread and chronicle the protests
A lot of companies, including tech companies lent their voices in support of the movement. Tech founders like Alexis Ohanian, one of the co-founders of Reddit, stepped down from the Reddit board and called for his seat to be filled by a black person.
The EndSARS movement and Feminist Coalition
The EndSARS movement was one of the major events that brought about the emergence of the voice of the Nigerian youth in shaping the destiny of the great country, Nigeria. It was an issue that affected many techies in Nigeria.
Though it tragically brought about the death of some youths, this was a movement that spilled over from social media to the streets after years of anger and agitation.
A lot of tech startups rose up to financially support the movement and one notable organisation that shone through, was the Feminist Coalition. It became a name synonymous with youth emancipation and struggle for freedom. It set up a platform to aggregate funds to support the movement and it was able to collect N147 million and disburse the funds towards different related initiatives.
Paystack acquisition by Stripe for $200 million
This is one story that gives hope to all those startups toiling day and night to ensure that they make a meaningful impact and also get rewarded for this.
So Paystack, a Nigerian startup founded by Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, announced in October 2020 that it was being acquired by Stripe, an American financial services and software company for $200 million.
Stripe and Paystack have been working closely together for some time. In 2018, Stripe led a number of other companies including Visa and Tencent in an $8 million in a series A funding, bringing Paystack’s total investment to date to more than $11.3 million before this acquisition. (Paystack raised $1.3 million in 2016)
