Paris (AFP)

The crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has brought a large part of the world to a halt, between lockdowns and shutdowns of entire parts of the economy, but some sectors have largely benefited from the situation.

From Amazon to Lego via Air France, Chevron or Sony, a quick overview of the 2020 financial results of some big names in the world economy.

.

Amazon as a champion of internet sales

Travel restrictions and store closures have pushed consumers to turn more to the internet.

Global e-commerce giant, the American Amazon, which has also taken advantage of the growing need for cloud services (remote computing), saw its turnover take off by nearly 40% in 2020, to nearly 387 billion dollars.

In the same vein, while many people have taken to the stoves, the delivery of meals has also seen a marked acceleration.

The Anglo-Dutch group Just Eat Takeaway recorded a 54% jump in revenues, to 2.4 billion euros, while its British competitor Deliveroo saw the value of transactions on its platform increase by 64%, to 4. 1 billion pounds.

Home-made products however resisted: in France, sales of small household appliances were boosted (+ 11.2%) by restrictions, in particular those of food processors (+ 27.5%).

.

Lego, video game, series: entertainment confined in form

Without being able to go to the cinema, the theater or the museum, the tenors of "entertainment" at home naturally had the wind in their sails.

The Danish manufacturer of small Lego bricks even signed a record year in terms of profits (+ 19% to 1.3 billion euros), while its sales soared by 13%.

On the virtual side, video games also experienced a boom in 2020, especially since Sony and Microsoft launched new consoles just before Christmas.

The Japanese saw its sales increase by 40% over one year, during the last three months of the year.

The American publisher Activision ("Call of Duty") exceeded expectations in the last quarter and the French Ubisoft expects a 2020/2021 financial year (completed at the end of March) record.

The passion for the series has not wavered.

If the pioneer Netflix has exceeded 200 million users worldwide, helped by various successes such as "The Lady's Game", its rival Disney +, launched at the end of 2019, already reached 95 million subscribers in early 2021.

.

Air transport grounded

As a consequence of the very strong constraints which weighed on tourism, the airlines experienced an "annus horribilis": Air France suffered an "unprecedented" shock which made it lose 7.1 billion euros, or a little more than its German rival Lufthansa (6.7 billion) or the British group IAG, parent company of British Airways (6.9 billion).

The low-cost have not been spared, like EasyJet which saw its revenues decline by 88% in the first quarter of its staggered fiscal year (from October to the end of December).

According to the International Air Transport Association (Iata), the companies which lost 510 billion dollars in turnover in 2020 and their financial losses reached 118 billion dollars.

The horizon remains blocked: losses should still stand at 38 billion this year.

.

Oil tankers stuck but recovery hoped for

The drop in global activity has largely reduced demand for oil, and the black gold giants have concluded 2020 with abysmal losses.

The world's five largest private companies - BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell and Total - have announced cumulative net losses of $ 77 billion for 2020, including more than $ 20 billion for BP alone.

However, the sector can hope to benefit from the recovery against the backdrop of accelerated vaccination campaigns in 2021, which has already allowed oil prices to return to their levels of a year ago.

© 2021 AFP