2020 has been a year of lockdowns and social distancing. The coronavirus pandemic has changed a lot about how people do things. Even with the removal of the measures put in place by the government to contain the pandemic, everyone still lives with a certain amount of caution. All through this period, there’s been a significant increase in the creation of a digital identity. Thanks to the advancements in digital technology, companies managed to keep some part of their businesses alive, and people could maintain a level of interaction among themselves.
All of this came at a price – dependence on technology. As companies and governments are using remote working strategies powered by digital technology to run their operations, individuals are spending more time online interacting with friends and colleagues or consuming digital content. To do all of these activities, however, people needed to create an online identity.
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What is a digital identity?
A digital identity is a collection of information about an individual, organization, or electronic device that exists online. In other words, digital or online identity is a person’s/business’s/device’s online ID card. For an entity to access digital content, a digital identity must be created. It is this identity that enables any entity (business/individual) to conduct activities online. And this cache of online activities forms the bulk of the information that goes into identifying users exclusively. With this information, website owners and businesses can identify users’ preferences and offer them targeted content and advertising. Digital identity is created from the use of personal information on the web and shadow data created by online activity.
How different industries can help customers build a digital identity
The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of new technologies that have been around for long. For instance, many organizations have created new business models that reflect the adoption of a remote working system. Alongside this, many companies across industries and governments are incorporating the use of digital identification systems. Essentially, the pandemic has ignited a flourish of digital identity trends in 2020.
Industries must put in place digital identity management systems that will help them to reimagine their existing business models and increase their profitability. Few industries that benefited from this during the lockdowns are:
Digital content providers
Since the pandemic started, many companies have embraced remote working. Presently, there are more telecommuters than ever before. With this new culture of remote working, there have been increased online streaming activities. Due to the ease of subscriptions and renewals optimized by digital identification systems, people can consume digital content at will. Streaming sites can leverage this trend to release more content, make better recommendations, and adjust the pricing.
Pricing is a touchy subject for consumers and streaming sites. To continue consuming the contents offered on these sites, consumers have to pay a certain amount. But due to the issue of account swapping – a situation where a person uses another person’s digital identity to consume content on a streaming site – streaming websites lose a lot of money. To combat this and remain profitable, online content providing industry can create tailor-made recommendations for an individual account
Gaming industry
When the lockdown was at its peak, all major sporting events were put on hold. Major football leagues in Europe and all over the world came to a halt. As a result, sport websites experienced a severe reduction in the number of users visiting their website. This was because fans found other sources that compensated for the lack of sporting activities. Essentially, visits to sites where people can watch virtual gaming competitions increased.
According to a report by the World Economic Forum, the video game market in 2020 will be worth nearly $160 billion, with almost half of that coming from mobile gaming. The revenue model for the gaming industry has been consumer spending and advertisement revenues. As per a report by Unity, the ad revenues from mobile gaming increased by 59% and ad impressions by 57%.
Based on the increase seen in gaming behavior, companies must find new ways to improve the user experience of every player. This will encourage new gamers to build their gaming profiles, stream them, and gain recognition without having to step outside their homes. Companies can release old games for free, as this will encourage more gamers to create a digital identity. By making old games free of charge, companies can use the online identities of users to track gaming behavior and use the information to develop better games.
Food delivery services
Even as nations are relaxing their lockdown measures, businesses haven’t been able to operate at full capacity. Countries are taking a cautious approach to reopen to prevent a second wave of outbreak. To adhere to the social distancing guidelines, quick service restaurants have remodeled their facility’s layout. Since many have stopped offering eat-in services, take-outs have become the norm. As a result, delivery apps have seen an increase in sales activity.
By working together, restaurants and delivery apps can encourage the creation of new digital identities. Generally, these delivery platforms have review pages where customers leave comments describing the quality of service from a particular outfit. These customers can act as a bridge between the food chains and their new customers. The delivery platforms can create a digital identity management system that uses influencer pages to drive the creation of more online identities. With influencer pages, people can learn more about the restaurants and how they’re using lesser staff to maintain topnotch service delivery. Since physical traveling is restricted, these apps can identify local customers within a specific radius of the restaurant and utilize them as local opinion leaders.
Home decor services
Even before the pandemic, people relied on the internet for almost anything. Only that the pandemic and lockdown measure made it obvious and the internet became more of a necessity. Initially, the first few weeks of staying at home was fun. But as time passed, people started to grow tired of the confinement. Home decor services can address these issues. All that is required is that big companies, such as Amazon, come up with dedicated pages from artists to show people how to re-decorate their workspaces at home. This will have a positive impact on the productivity of an employee working from home. This will also motivate individuals to display their tastes and preferences and keep them engaged in building their digital identity.
References:
- Covid19 and the rise of digital identity | Laxminarayana Yashaswy Akella and Anuj Kapoor||August 10, 2020
- Digital Identity | Matthew Haughn||August 30, 2017
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