COVID-19: From #StayingHome to #StoppingTheSpread

The actual coronavirus pandemic has disrupted lives, communities, and businesses worldwide.

The private and public sectors, including dLocal and its partners, are coming together to tackle the pandemic and are determined to implement innovative ways to relieve the impacts of COVID-19. After the initial #Stayathome call, #ViralKindness, #FlattenTheCurve and #StopTheSpread are taking over activities and initiatives to encourage solidarity during the quarantine. Ikea is donating bed linen and towels, fashion giant Zara will be stitching hospital scrubs instead of 2020 trends and four-star hotels are offering their facilities to hospitals in need of beds and space.

We took a close look, naturally, into our ecosystem and found it worthwhile sharing with you some of the outstanding responses to the COVID-19:

Amazon has placed purchase orders for millions of face masks to be distributed to medical providers first, then to their own employees who can’t work from home. ‘This isn’t business as usual’ said Jeff Bezos, Founder of Amazon last Friday. The company has limited shipments to cleaning equipment, medical supplies and household goods from suppliers at its warehouses for the next three weeks to address  surging demand. They also responded to the quarantine with a free offering of some kids’ movies and TV shows. Amazon and eBay, among the largest eCommerce sites worldwide, announced significant donations through their Neighborhood Small Business Relief Fund (Amazon) and the eBay Foundation, providing emergency grants to their business neighbors and community in these extraordinary times.

Shopify, another giant eCommerce platform, is committed to taking on their part of the responsibility and doing their bit in offering a catalog of actions. With customers changing their shopping habits, Shopify enables its customers to expand alternative, offers free webinars to help shift Brick-and-Mortal businesses into digital ones, established funding of $200 million for small businesses and extended its 14-day trial to up to 90 days in order to allow affected businesses to switch to an online store.

Social isolation and working from home have led to an increase of more than 50 percent in global internet traffic due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to figures from Akamai. While telecommunications companies like Comcast, Claro, and Antel are offering free internet access, streaming services like Disney Plus, Netflix, Apple TV Plus, YouTube and Amazon Prime are reducing video quality to prevent the internet from collapsing under the strain of unprecedented traffic.

But restrictions only make the industry getting more creative: Netflix and Google Chrome have created a new function called Netflix Party, allowing groups of friends to view content together at the same time. With cinemas closing, the film industry is facing a new challenge to release new movies. Paramount’s comedy, The Lovebird, marks the first time during this period that a studio movie lost its theatrical release and will head straight to a third-party streamer. Therefore, Amazon Prime, as well as iTunes and Google Play, have launched their own new hub featuring Hollywood movies that were previously scheduled for theaters shows.

SoundCloud has cut off 50% of their SoundCloud Pro Unlimited subscriptions and unveiled a new partnership with Twitch, allowing SoundCloud creators to start making money on the platform by fast-tracking Affiliate status.

Rideshare apps and grocery and food delivery services like Uber, Lyft, Didi and Rappi, have assumed their fundamental role in helping individuals enact government-recommended social distancing. New options like ‘Please leave order outside my door’ are enhancing no-contact delivery.  Cabify is offering free rides for healthcare professionals and both Uber and  Didi, provide financial assistance to their drivers diagnosed with COVID-19 or placed in individual quarantine by a public health authority due to their risk of spreading the virus.  Didi already announced a 10-million-dollar fund for their drivers.

Since mid-March, dlocal along with many of the world’s major tech companies, including Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Facebook, asked all of the staff in the headquarters in Uruguay as well as in all our branches worldwide to work from home. We are also part of and promoting the Uruguayan campaign #noscuidamosentretodos, a public collection to raise funds to buy basic medical supplies.

As we continue to monitor our ecosystem initiatives, we’ll update you on these far-reaching actions and how they impact our new way of life.

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