Just Eat Takeaway.com's orders rose 57% in Q4 2020

 "European food-ordering firm Just Eat Takeaway.com NV said on Wednesday it had received 57% more orders in the fourth quarter than a year earlier, as strict social distancing rules and work-from-home trends continued to boost online orders.

Order growth accelerated from a 46% jump in the third quarter, as countries across Europe went back into lockdown due to swelling numbers of coronavirus infections.

Takeaway’s orders were up 56% in Germany and 58% in the United Kingdom. Restaurants in the Netherlands delivered 39% more meals through the company’s platform.

The company said it expects revenue to have jumped more than 50% in the whole of 2020, with an adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) margin of around 10%."

Source:  Reuters, 13th January 2021

Facebook's usage has gone up by 50% as a result of the coronavirus

"The coronavirus has ended up a boon for social media giant Facebook, which saw a 50 percent spike in usage as the virus ate its way through the country’s health and economy.
The usage of the social media network’s numerous features, such as messenger and video calls, has spiked in recent weeks as millions of Americans have had to stay home to avoid the virus. This is a sharp turnaround from not so long ago when the social network seemed to be collecting dust, mostly seeing use from older people as the youth flocked to newer models of social media.
But as of late, Facebook has been seeing increases in news consumption as well, with more than half the articles consumed on the site relating to the virus pandemic. Ranjan Subramanian, a data analyst with the company, talked about the increase in a blog post, calling it “unprecedented.”
The report says the bulk of the increase — over 90 percent — can be credited to what Facebook terms “Power News Consumers” and “Power News Discussers,” who consume and talk about news more than most users of the service. The company, monitoring the activity from that spike fervently, wants to make sure all news put out about the worldwide crisis is as accurate and authoritative as possible — a kind of real-time experiment in how to handle news on social media."

Source:  PYMNTS, 25th March 2020

More than a million people are watching Joe Wicks' YouTube workouts

"A YouTube workout by the online fitness guru Joe Wicks has been livestreamed by more than a million people, as parents turn to alternative teaching methods to cope with their children not being able to attend school during the coronavirus outbreak.
Wicks, who was due to start a tour of schools to promote fitness and healthy living this week, decided to livestream a daily workout instead, saying he wanted to become “the PE teacher for the nation” as the coronavirus forces more children indoors.
The former personal trainer said he had “never seen anything like” the support his workout received on Facebook, where it was shared more than 150,000 times, with support from school teachers who directed students to the stream as an alternative to PE lessons. Some schools also included links to the workout in home curriculum documents emailed to parents."

Source:  The Guardian, 23rd March 2020

Boris Johnson's Covid-19 Lockdown Broadcast was watched live by 27m people

"Boris Johnson’s address to the nation ordering Britons to stay at home due to the coronavirus pandemic was one of the most-watched broadcasts in UK television history, with more than 27 million Britons tuning in live to watch him announce the historic lockdown of the country.
This puts the pre-recorded broadcast in the top tier of most-watched British television programmes ever, up with the likes of the 1966 World Cup final and the funeral of Princess Diana, making clear the historic importance of the occasion as the country collectively watched the prime minister give the latest coronavirus guidance.
The overnight viewing figures do not include the millions of Britons who watched the broadcast on internet livestreams through news apps and websites, or those who watched it through catch-up services, meaning the real audience is likely to have been substantially higher."
Source:  The Guardian, 24th March 2020

Note - It was shown simultaneously on several major channels