San Francisco (AFP)

The global economy is paralyzed by the coronavirus, the recession threatens and advertising revenue is dry, but the tech giants, Amazon, Google and Facebook in the lead, are breaking promising usage records for their future.

From Tuesday to Thursday, like Apple and Microsoft, they will publish their financial results for the first three months of the year, marked by the tilting of the planet in the pandemic and the economic crisis.

But on the applications of the dominant social network, it is Christmas Eve every day for a month: the level of calls made via WhatsApp and Messenger has doubled, reaching daily that of New Years celebrations, usually the annual peak.

The number of video calls made through "Teams", Microsoft's video conferencing solution, jumped 1,000% in March.

As unemployment explodes, Amazon is recruiting with all arms - 175,000 additional jobs in the United States - to cope with the influx of online orders since the introduction of social distancing.

Google and Apple, for their part, are launching new products, physical or digital, and are proposing to make themselves even more essential with new tools for tracking human contacts ("contact tracing"), to fight against the new coronavirus.

- Caution -

The most reluctant to online commerce placed their first order on Amazon. Seniors have started playing video games. The "anti" social networks have no other choice to keep in touch with their friends.

Children imitate their parents, each on their screen for teleworking. Families have re-subscribed to Netflix.

But all is not rosy at GAFA. Advertising, the crux of the war for Google and Facebook, was one of the first budgets cut by struggling businesses.

Digital societies must provide a service that has become essential, with limited resources. Their employees work from their garage, their living room, or, worse, in warehouses that are difficult to protect from the virus.

The production of electronic devices (such as smartphones) and content for streaming platforms (series, video games) is lagging behind.

One by one, the groups have withdrawn or lowered their forecasts for 2020.

"The first quarter numbers aren't going to reflect what's really going on," said Bob O'Donnell of Technalysis Research. "The problems only started in March. The real issue will be demand in the second quarter."

A sign that even the good numbers are no longer jubilant, Netflix announced this week new subscriber records with infinite caution, emphasizing the uncertainty that hangs over the rest of the year.

The winners of containment do not want to give the impression of profiting from the health crisis.

And above all, it is difficult to know which habits will be taken for good, and which uses will disappear in a distant and vague "after".

- Affecting -

"For the moment, these platforms, like Zoom, are doing a service. But when we can go to dinner with friends, we will no longer have aperitifs in videoconference. And it will no longer be free," said Carolina Milanesi of Creative. Strategies.

However, no one is worried about the future of tech cadors.

"The entire advertising industry will suffer, but they have enough reserves to resist," said David Sidebottom, analyst at Futuresource.

Crisis or no crisis, they are also ironed in offensive mode.

Apple Music has conquered 52 new countries with 6 months free for new subscribers. Google has made Stadia, its cloud video game service, free for 2 months.

Facebook this week launched a video game streaming app, in direct competition with Twitch (Amazon) or Mixer (Microsoft), and a new video call interface, Messenger Rooms, which allows you to "take a leap", virtually, in the living room of his friends - enough to make Zoom fade.

The groups also compete in terms of social responsibilities, by communicating on the protection of their employees, their efforts to fight against disinformation linked to Covid-19 or their donations to charitable organizations.

Google and Apple, whose operating systems are the most used on smartphones in the world, go so far as to propose an unprecedented alliance to be able to digitally track individuals who have been close to infected people.

"It's fascinating. They can have a decisive impact on the whole planet," said Bob O'Donnell. "It shows their power and influence: no government can reach so many people at the same time."

© 2020 AFP