As Singapore goes into its seventh month of enforcing stringent preventative measures in response to COVID-19 and the upheaval and uncertainty spreads further across the globe, deeper into society and challenges everyday norms, it got me thinking – would we have survived this pandemic if the clock was turned back to 2005?

Let’s get real. Of course we would have BUT the shock would have been much bigger and we may not have been as sane as we (arguably!) are today.

9/11, SARS and MERS have educated us and thanks to technology we have a lot to be grateful for as bedrooms and living spaces are swapped for makeshift home offices, classrooms and fitness workout spaces protecting us from the mercy of a virus that feels like it is spreading faster than Australia’s recent wildfires.

As a working parent, I am not so sure how I would have got through almost 11 weeks of my 4-year-old being at home if we turned back time to 15 years ago.

Home-based learning for a 4-year-old necessitated a Gmail account, internet connection, and access to a personal electronic device not to mention parent’s finding patience deep within.

According to Statista, in 2020 only c. 50% of households own a laptop. In 2005 it was a mere 27.3% percent. With iPads only introduced in 2011, kids fighting over whose turn it was to use the iPad was not even an option.

I suspect laptop and iPad sales increased quite significantly in recent months as parents grappled with the balance of using their computer to work versus using their device for their child’s virtual classroom session or to stop the fighting over whose turn it was next. Kudos to parents managing school diaries of multiple siblings, living in a household where one child does not equal sole use of a device, putting a stop to WW3 (daily), AND managing to work.

In Singapore with 95% of the population living in apartment buildings and with no option to play outside once school was done for the day, I unashamedly had to turn to the “babysitter” – the Smart TV – for help. Thank goodness for the multitude of viewing options now available to us. It is not just all about different TV channels on cable TV but having multiple cable TV options.

Fifteen years ago, Singapore had two cable TV options. You chose either Starhub or Singtel. Australia only had Foxtel. The US has always been ahead of the game with a huge variety of pay-TV options available since the 1970s. Irrespective of which country you live in today, we now have country-specific cable TV options and can satisfy our on-demand needs via Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, HBO or tap into other countries’ cable TV thanks to VPN.

It seems like we have had cable TV for an eternity, but the reality is something different. Netflix started in 1997 but its initial business model included DVD sales and rental by mail. Netflix only commenced streaming media content in 2007 and expanded internationally in 2010. Prime started in 2006, followed shortly thereafter by Apple TV in 2007 but they took time to ramp up operations. HBO, while USA’s oldest and longest continuously operating subscription television service commenced operation in 1972, its video on-demand streaming platforms were well behind the early adopters – HBO Go (2010), HBO Now (2015) and HBO Max (2020).

Leaving kids to the “babysitter”, the worker (aka you and me), have our days filled with Zoom, Teams or Skype meetings, face to face chats are replaced by instant messenger apps and VOIP calls via WhatsApp, Hangouts and Slack and then there are the webinars and LinkedIn “looking to re/connect” messages.

For some this happened seamlessly, for others, not.

Our working day is now consumed by this new business norm, but surprisingly, only one of these communication means was available in 2005, but which was it?

Skype. It launched in 2003, but really didn’t take off until much, much later. In 2005, Skype had only 23 million users. It took nine years to hit 1 billion registered users worldwide in 2014 and today Skype is estimated to have 1.7 billion users.

Video conferencing facilities have been around for years, but they were the in-office kind of solution, not so easy to use and frightfully expensive. Web-based solutions such as Zoom launched in 2013, with Microsoft Teams and Google Meet, entering the playing field in 2017. It would be amiss of me not to mention Cisco WebEx, founded in 1995, but with only 500 million meeting participants for the month of April 2020, it feels like it is the poor unknown cousin compared to Google Meets and Zoom with 100 million and 200 million daily meeting participants respectively.

Some interesting facts for consideration. Zoom reported 10 million daily meeting participants in December 2019, while Google Meets reported 3 million new users daily in late April 2020. Thanks, COVID-19.

WhatsApp entered the market in 2009, challenging BBM – short for Blackberry Messenger for those who can still remember – followed by WeChat (2011) and Slack (2013).

OneDrive (previously known as SkyDrive) entered our lives in 2007, Dropbox in 2008, iCloud in 2011, and Google Drive in 2012. Gone are the days of 2005 when you had to dial-up to log in to the network.

And here’s a little-known fact. LinkedIn launched way before the rest of these tech solutions entered our lives. It took four years to reach 10 million users in April 2007 and sits at 700 million users today. In a COVID-19 world, while still predominantly used by HR professionals, it is a way for the rest of us to connect and share thought leadership, watch content, pursue business development or seek new job opportunities. LinkedIn’s revenue increased by 21% in the March 2020 quarter. Not bad.

Kids sorted. Work is getting done. But how to get food on the table? Hmmm. Another challenge in this crazy world. Online grocery and take away to the rescue.

Cold Storage pioneered grocery e-shopping in Singapore in 1997. Fancy that. E-shopping in the 19th century. Cold Storage’s soiree into e-shopping, however, was ahead of its time and needed competition for a significant shift in customer experience and acceptance. Enter RedMart in 2011, Giant and Sheng Siong (2013) and Prime Now (Amazon) launched in Singapore in 2017.

In Australia, Woolworths ventured into online grocery sales in Sydney in 1992 before expanding to the Gold Coast in 2009. Coles followed in 1999. Neither was particularly successful in the early days, but I can only assume that finding a delivery slot in Victoria right now is equivalent to winning the lottery.

I am ever so grateful to have a gourmet smorgasbord of food delivery options at my fingertips in recent months – Deliveroo, FoodPanda, Grab Food – but the best you could get delivered in Singapore in 2005 was pretty much limited to McDelivery or pizza from your local store.

With all but grocery stores closed in Singapore, and a 4-year-old who needed an entertainment solution that extended beyond the “babysitter”, I was a frequent buyer of items from Amazon and Lazada. It was impossible to buy craft supplies, books, or puzzles from the supermarket and smaller retail outlets simply weren’t set up for online commerce. Launched in 1994 selling books, Amazon expanded its offering in 1999 and sells just about everything (including the kitchen sink – I checked!). Enter Lazada (2012) and Shoppee (2015).

For the past six months, I have barely had to leave the house. Everything I have needed has been at my fingertips.

Technology has completely transformed the way we operate over the years and COVID-19 is set to accelerate further transformation.

COVID-19 in 2005 would have been a different story. What would we have done back then? Well, my guess is that we would have just got on with it or gone completely nuts but one thing for certain it would have all been done without the hype of social media.

Fiona Robertson - Partner - North Ridge Partners

Singapore, August 2020