Quarantine measures amid the novel coronavirus have caused a massive social adjustment in online behavior.

According to Business Insider reporting, the Federal Communications Commission has given T-Mobile, Verizon, and US Cellular access to additional spectrum for a 60-day period in an effort to help them mitigate network strain and ensure that Americans do not lose their broadband or telephone connectivity as a result of these exceptional circumstances.

Verizon reported that data loads for video games on its network increased 75% week-over-week, VPN increased 34%, web traffic increased 20%, and video 12%.

Just recently, YouTube and Amazon Prime announced they will sacrifice streaming quality in the EU to help avert internet gridlock as tens of millions of Europeans. Amazon Prime followed has also teamed up on this initiative, saying it supported the need for careful management of telecom services to ensure they can handle the increased internet demand with so many people now at home full-time due to COVID-19. Netflix said it would reduce bit rates, which determine the quality and size of its audio and video files, across all its streams in Europe for 30 days, in effect cutting its traffic on European networks by around 25%, per Reuters.

Experts warn that reducing streaming rates may only give temporary relief and the dilemma of whether to discriminate between essential and non-essential traffic will resurface.

Affected traffic

Not all the sectors are equal in the face of this crisis. Some industries are experiencing a significant increase in traffic, while others are seeing a major drop in digital visits. The chart below compares last week’s traffic (March 8-15) with the average of the first six weeks of the year (pre-Covid-19 acceleration in western countries).

According to Content Square, four sectors recorded a major surge in traffic: Media (+46%), Supermarket (+42%), Retail Healthcare (comprising online pharmacies, vitamin, supplement: +24%) and Telecom (+24%).

This shows two major patterns: people are interested in stocking up on basic items and key necessities to face the crisis (food, health, staying connected during quarantine or WFH), and at the same time people want to be informed and have more time to consume media. Some sectors are particularly hurt, experiencing significantly fewer visits: Jewelry (-25%), Tourism (-22%), Luxury (-19%), Fashion (-14%) and Events/Theater and Sport equipment brands (both at -13%).