How Tech Companies Adapt Their Products and Services to the COVID-19 Pandemic

The coronavirus pandemic influenced the lifestyle of most people all over the world. These days, the majority of us work remotely, we no longer travel overseas or hang out with friends. Many of our routine habits changed, at least for the period of the COVID-19 crisis. Naturally, the new demands of target audiences forced tech companies to rethink the design and functionality of their products, adapting them to current market conditions.

We collected the most successful cases showing how tech businesses alter their apps and services to meet the needs of people in quarantine.

Spotify

Spotify is a popular music, podcast, and video streaming service. To support the global music community in the COVID-19 health crisis, it launched a financial relief initiative. The project is aimed at helping content creators who lost their revenue sources due to the pandemic. In particular, the company added a public donations feature to its website. It’s also working on the functionality that will allow artists to fundraise from their fans directly via the app. For listeners, Spotify created the COVID-19 hub containing news and information about coronavirus. The hub should help users always stay informed.

Tinder

Tinder is a dating app that allows users to match with other singles in their area. The necessity to maintain social distance made the Tinder service much less relevant than it used to be. To protect themselves, people should stay at home and arranging a date with new acquaintances during the quarantine is nearly impossible. So Tinder’s team decided to make users’ self-isolation a little bit more bearable. It allowed all users to swipe abroad for free till April 30. Earlier, this feature was available only to paid subscribers.

Apple

During the pandemic, a lot of people get information about a coronavirus disease from different apps. Realizing its role in preventing the spread of fake news, Apple decided to set strict restrictions for COVID-19 themed applications. Now, app submissions that are related to coronavirus or pandemic can be accepted and published in the App Store only if they come from reputable entities (e.g. governments, health-focused NGOs, medical institutions).

In addition, Apple banned all entertainment applications that use COVID-19 as a theme to prevent companies from monetizing this life-threatening subject matter.

Airbnb

Airbnb is a home-sharing service that earns money by connecting travelers seeking an apartment to rent with property owners. Recently, it allowed guests to cancel reservations that were made before March 14 or have check-in dates before April 14 with no charge. The company also announced that it’ll waive all fees for stays of 100,000 healthcare professionals, relief workers, and first responders around the globe. No doubts such steps will strengthen the Airbnb brand, making its services even more attractive to users in the future.

Glovo

Glovo is an on-demand ordering service that is quite popular in Europe. Since COVID-19 is an extremely contagious virus, the company implemented contactless deliveries and removed the requirement for couriers to obtain a mobile signature from the app users. Such measures allow customers to receive their essential product and other orders with the minimum risk to get infected. The limited direct contact between customers and Glovo employees also helps to protect couriers who continue working despite the harsh pandemic situation.

The final word

The COVID-19 outbreak has changed almost all aspects of our lives and created a lot of new challenges for tech companies. Since many digital products lost their relevance for the quarantine period, their creators faced a difficult choice: either to give up and disappear, at least until better times, or to adapt and survive. Spotify, Tinder, Apple, Airbnb, and Glovo are great examples of how companies can achieve business continuity by being socially responsible, flexible, and creative.