Trends when the world wide web is under pressure
Trends when the world wide web is under pressure
People’s use of, and relationship with, the Internet during the pandemic.
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Internet under pressure
We hope this finds you staying safe during these extraordinary times. This week, as billions of people around the planet continue to work from home, we’re highlighting Internet usage trends in the U.S. and globally. We’ll explore how streaming services and startups are responding to this surge, and how these patterns reflect the ways we’re adjusting to this new reality.
We’re also thinking about the future. A light-hearted possibility of a post-COVID-19 world could offer relaxed social norms around workplace attire. We’re also learning about a new breakthrough in math theory, and how two papers may help prove a 350-year-old theorem (for the curious: an + bn = cn for any integer value of n greater than 2.) Finally, we’re looking at the origins of the iconic coronavirus illustration and considering what it says about our societal response to COVID-19.
Next week, we’re exploring new solutions to address the ever-widening digital divide. We hope you’ve been enjoying this newsletter and would love any feedback (erica@nycmedialab.org). We wish you and your community safety, calm and solidarity as we support each other through this unprecedented time. Thank you again for reading.
All best,
Erica Matsumoto
With billions of newly homebound workers and students, the global health pandemic has significantly altered internet usage patterns around the world.
In today’s issue, we’ll look at the global shift in internet usage, how our collective use is straining the global web, responses to the world’s surging internet use, and, finally, identify the winners and losers from COVID-19-driven internet usage changes.
MORE SCREEN TIME EVERYWHERE
By all accounts and metrics, internet use is up around the world. According to Comcast, the United States’ largest internet provider, peak traffic has increased 32% overall — and in some areas, internet use is up 60% since March 1.
Comcast’s figures show:
- 38% increase in video streaming/consumption
- 7% increase in linear TV
- 50% increase in gaming downloads overall (and an 80% increase for new releases)
- 212% increase in video conferencing and voice-over-internet
- 40% increase in VPN traffic
Due to people working from home, internet usage is up in the suburbs and exurbs and down in urban centers. These patterns hold true around the world, as workers around the globe have been ordered to play their parts in flattening the curve by working from home.
A WORLDWIDE WEB UNDER PRESSURE
The upshot of people’s forced confinement in their homes is a massive increase in internet pressure. In some places, the internet shows signs of significant pressure; in some regions, COVID-19-related pressure on the internet is crippling online experiences.
According to KASPR Datahaus, Iran has seen the most deleterious effects on the internet due to COVID-19. We’re seeing a direct correlation between countries in which the internet has come under the most significant strain and countries where strict lockdowns have come into effect (this link between COVID-19 cases, lockdowns, and internet pressure can be seen in Japan, Spain, South Korea, Italy, and China).
Source: Monash University SOLUTIONS TO MEET HIGH-PRIORITY DEMANDS FIRST
Streaming Services: With internet usage rising rapidly around the world and the global internet scrambling to keep apace, internet and content providers are working hard to keep their services stable. To date, Disney+, Netflix, Apple, Amazon, and YouTube have all throttled streaming quality during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Startups: In addition to content providers’ proactive efforts to reduce their services’ demands on the internet, there are also startups looking to step up and prevent the newly mostly-remote workforce from overwhelming the internet. One such company is Subspace, a startup focused on improving the delivery of low-latency data. Bayan Towfiq, founder and CEO of the company, explains:
“What’s [been a noticeable problem while everyone is at home streaming and videoconferencing] is less than one percent of data. [For these applications] it’s more important than the other 99 percent.” Said another way: users don’t notice — or care — if a photo takes half a second to load in the same way they notice a half-second delay on a video conference call. With this in mind, Subspace seeks to change how the Internet works by forcing it to prioritize the 1% of data that must be delivered immediately and de-prioritize the rest.
COMPUTER BROWSING AND VIDEO CHATTING ARE UP
According to a New York Times analysis of internet usage in the U.S. based on two online data providers’ data, traffic to Facebook, Netflix’s website and YouTube have jumped by double digits; app traffic, on the other hand, as been relatively stable (and, in YouTube’s case, actually declined by 4.5%).
Source: The New York Times With in-person socializing strictly limited, people are increasingly turning to video chats, such as Google’s video chat application, Duo, Houseparty, and, of course, Zoom.
Source: The New York Times The rise of video-enabled platforms is true in both the social and work contexts.
Source: The New York Times UNBIASED NEWS MAY BE A WINNER One surprising — and heartening — finding from the Times’ analysis suggests that nonpartisan news may be a winner from the COVID-19 crisis. While local news and large media organization sites have seen pronounced increases in average monthly U.S. traffic over the January to March period, the same hasn’t been true for partisan sites.
Source: The New York Times
Similarly, the CDC’s website and a Johns Hopkins resource center on COVID-19 have seen meaningful increases in traffic overall (although it should be noted, the CDC site’s traffic began declining in mid-March).
Source: The New York Times E-SPORTS OVER REAL SPORTS As all major-league games have been postponed, “real” sports have lost out to video games and live streaming.
Source: The New York Times When All of This is Over, Kill the Office Dress Code
When the COVID-19 crisis blows over, office dress codes are one possible casualty that we, at least, would welcome. If companies come out on the other side of this recognizing that the traditional belief that competence and attire are linked is, in fact, incorrect, we may well find ourselves wearing athleisure to the office by the end of this year.
10 min read The New Math Bridge Beyond Fermat’s Last Theorem Two papers, which collectively represent the culmination of over a dozen mathematicians’ efforts, may eventually help mathematicians prove Fermat’s Last Theorem for some number systems beyond the positive whole numbers. University of Chicago professor says these “pivotal results” are revealing “some fundamental number-theoretic phenomena.” 16 min read The story of the iconic coronavirus illustration — and why it’s been endlessly remixed
By this point, nearly everyone on the planet has seen renderings representing COVID-19 as a ball with distinctive spikes.
Source: STAT
The story of this image’s origin and its subsequent remixing by publications, news outlets and more speaks to overall attitudes around COVID-19 and the societal response to it.
5 min read This Week in Business History
April 13, 1860: The Pony Express completes its first successful delivery of mail to Sacramento, California from St. Joseph, Missouri
Hundreds cheer as Tom Hamilton gallops up to the post office and hands over the mail satchel containing 49 letters and three newspapers. The journey had begun 10 days earlier, on April 3. In total, the service covered 1,800 miles, involved 157 manned stations, and kept 80 riders in the saddle day and night.
The Pony Express will go on to become obsolete 18 months later due to the completion of the transcontinental telegraph service. Today, it is both a classic example of how technology drives business change and an enduring symbol of the Old West.
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