New school year, new leaders, and a new "bubble"

In 2020, the global education sector underwent significant changes. Classes in most educational institutions, conferences, business meetings, and negotiations were moved online. While the global economy is experiencing its worst times, online video communication services and cloud storage providers are seeing a surge in growth. Experts refer to this rapid growth as a new "bubble."  Let's take the example of the leader in online video communication—Zoom (Zoom Video Communications). The service was created in 2011, and in the spring of 2019, it went public through an IPO. Today, Zoom ranks first in terms of downloads on the App Store. In March 2020, the company's stock rose by 44%, while the S&P 500 index (a stock market index of 505 large publicly traded U.S. companies) fell by 11%. A sharp jump occurred from August 31 to September 1: from $325.1 to $457.7 per share. As of October 11, according to NASDAQ, the stock price was $492.1.  Many experts compare the current situation to the "dot-com" bubble that burst in the early 2000s, which led to a collapse in stock prices and financial ruin. However, the boom of those years was unjustified and caused by artificially inflated stock prices of unprofitable internet companies.  The growth of online companies in 2020 is quite logical, as it is driven by the increased importance of these services. The question remains: will the new bubble burst, or is it not a bubble at all, but simply the realities of the new world? There is also a trend showing that the indicators appear quite stable, and no collapse is in sight.  If we return to the example of ZOOM, the company's growth was noted even before the mass transition to remote work and learning (profit at the end of 2019 doubled compared to 2018), but the new realities pushed the company to a higher level. A similar situation exists with other digital companies: their stocks rose before the announcement of isolation measures, and quarantine measures only strengthened the positions of these companies.  This year has taught us that nothing is impossible: everything can change fundamentally in an instant, and unfortunately, the situation is not always within our control.