Businesses That Benefited From the COVID-19 Pandemic
This paper examines four sectors that experienced significant growth during the COVID-19 pandemic: logistics and delivery, pharmaceutical companies, wireless and internet services, and entertainment applications. The paper analyzes how each industry adapted to pandemic conditions, what opportunities emerged from the crisis, and how those opportunities contributed to value creation. Drawing on sources including Oxfam and peer-reviewed journals, the paper illustrates how unexpected disruption reshaped consumer behavior and business models across multiple industries.
- Introduction: COVID-19 disrupted supply, demand, and business operations
- Logistics and Delivery: E-commerce and delivery services surged during lockdowns
- Pharmaceutical Industry: Drug and vaccine makers earned record profits and investment
- Wireless and Internet Services: High-speed internet became essential for economic survival
- Entertainment Applications: Streaming and social media platforms saw explosive growth
- References: Six APA-formatted academic and organizational citations
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper uses concrete examples — Amazon, Pfizer, Netflix, Facebook — to ground each sector's growth in recognizable real-world cases, making abstract economic shifts tangible.
- Each section follows a consistent structure: identifying the industry, explaining pandemic-driven growth, then enumerating the specific opportunities that emerged, which aids readability and analytical clarity.
- The paper integrates quantitative evidence (e.g., AbbVie's 183% shareholder distribution, Netflix's 60% earnings increase) to support claims rather than relying solely on general assertions.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates effective use of sectoral analysis — breaking a broad economic question into discrete industry categories and applying the same analytical framework (growth drivers + emerging opportunities) to each. This parallel structure allows for implicit comparison across sectors without requiring an explicit comparative argument, a useful technique for survey-style economic writing.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a brief introduction contextualizing how COVID-19 disrupted supply and demand, then devotes one section to each of the four benefiting industries. Each section identifies the industry, explains the mechanism of pandemic-driven growth, names key companies, and lists new opportunities. The paper closes with a references section citing six academic and organizational sources in APA format.
Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic entirely transformed the dynamics of supply and demand worldwide. The outbreak of the virus was unexpected, and its effects on business operations were largely unanticipated. Some businesses faced severe disruptions in supply chain functions, export orders, raw material storage, and final product delivery. At the same time, others experienced unprecedented growth driven by the new conditions the pandemic created (Shafi, Liu & Ren, 2020). This paper identifies four businesses that the pandemic affected positively, examining the opportunities it created and how those opportunities contributed to value creation.
Logistics and Delivery
The logistics and delivery sector boomed as people remained at home during lockdowns, whether for food delivery or product delivery resulting from the surge in online shopping. Amazon, Alibaba, eBay, and thousands of other businesses accelerated their sales and promotions during the pandemic. With governments strictly prohibiting citizens from leaving their homes due to the virus, demand for delivery services skyrocketed. This included food delivery services, as vegetables, fruits, and other household items were in high demand given that consumers were unable to shop in person at large retailers like Walmart and Target.
Logistics and retail companies were forced to rethink their supply chain operations, as inventory management had to be handled more intelligently during this period. These challenges extended beyond road logistics to include air and water transport as well. Although airline operations were adversely affected during the early days of the pandemic, the easing of route suspensions followed as vaccination rates rose and global COVID-19 case numbers declined. The opportunities redefined by the pandemic in the delivery sector include evolving consumer expectations, heightened health priorities, a dramatic increase in the volume of products ordered online compared to pre-pandemic levels, and the need to redesign logistics infrastructure (Suguna et al., 2021).
Pharmaceutical Industry
The pharmaceutical industry progressed rapidly during the pandemic. Although medicines and vaccines specifically targeting COVID-19 were not available initially, people sought medications for fever and other precautionary treatments. As a result, U.S. pharmaceutical company AbbVie distributed 183% of its net profits to shareholders in the first two quarters of 2020 (Oxfam, 2020, p. 16). Three other prominent companies — Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, and Merck — were also reported to have earned substantial profits, primarily through their involvement in vaccine development.
The opportunities the pandemic provided to pharmaceutical companies included a heightened public concern over healthcare, increased reliance on pharmacists as the primary consumer touchpoints for essential medications, and a surge in investment in research for new medicines and vaccines (Bukhari et al., 2020). Technological interventions accelerated vaccine production, treatment development, clinical trials accounting for varying immune responses, and medical analysis of injection reactions following diagnosis. These advances added significant value to the industry and produced meaningful outcomes for people during the pandemic (European Pharmaceutical Review, 2021).
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