The 2020 Digital Hot List: Keeping Us Connected During Covid

When Covid-19 forced most of us to shelter in place in March, we turned to the digital world to stay remotely connected to our co-workers, family and friends. Slack and Zoom quickly replaced in-person meetings, while TikTok and the Nintendo Switch provided a much-needed escape from the grim headlines. This year’s Digital Hot List spotlights all the platforms and innovators that made life a little more bearable during the pandemic—and changed our lives forever. Digital Executive of the Year Jack Dorsey, Twitter Whether Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey intended to or not, he and his company set new standards this year for how social media platforms moderate hate speech and misinformation. ... Click here for Dorsey's full Digital Executive of the Year profile. Digital Creator of the Year Sarah Cooper, TikTok/Twitter It wasn’t even a year ago that Sarah Cooper seriously thought about once again setting aside her dream of making it big as a comedian and heading back into corporate America for a steady gig. Then the former UX designer at Google downloaded TikTok at the height of the pandemic and hit record. ... Click here for Cooper's full Digital Creator of the Year profile. Hottest Digital Obsession Racial Justice After the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody in May, calls for racial justice rang out across social media, and crowds gathered in protest despite the pandemic. The push for racial justice made its way to the world of media and advertising, too. Condé Nast came under fire after employees of color shined a light on the company’s noninclusive practices, major brands pulled ad spend from Facebook in response to the platform’s lackluster stance against hate speech, NBA players went on strike during the playoffs to demand progress and action, and a Black-owned nonprofit pressured ad agencies into sharing their diversity in hiring data. —Andrew Blustein Hottest App Slack Even before the coronavirus, Slack had already established itself as a valuable workplace communications tool—the Covid-19 shutdown entrenched it even more as businesses adjusted to working remotely. Slack’s second-quarter revenue was up 49% year over year, with large enterprise customers (those spending more than $1 million per year) up 78%. The app said its users are connected for an average of 10 hours per day and actively use it for more than 100 minutes daily. Plus, Slack Connect, which lets people partner with collaborators in up to 20 organizations outside of their company, saw a 160% year-over-year jump in paid customers. —David Cohen Hottest Game Animal Crossing: New Horizons People may not have been able to see each other in real life due to Covid-19, but thanks to the Nintendo game, they could visit one another’s virtual villages remotely. Between June and August, Nintendo’s newest iteration of the popular Animal Crossing franchise was its most popular game, with 10.6 million copies sold, bringing total sales to 22.4 million. It was also the most-tweeted-about game in the first half of 2020, drawing brands like Gillette and Ikea. Even Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden added yard signs to the game to help get out the vote. Soon enough, we’ll be buying things in bells. —A.B. Hottest Platform TikTok Since its rebirth following ByteDance's acquisition of Musical.ly in 2017, TikTok has been nothing short of a cultural tour de force. Turn on pop radio—it sounds like TikTok. Grab a coffee from Dunkin’—you’ll see menu items from a TikTok influencer. Claiming 100 million monthly active users in the U.S., TikTok is less akin to Facebook and more like YouTube, less of a social network and more like a supercharged user-generated streaming platform. Meanwhile, the company navigated an unprecedented obstacle when the Trump administration attempted to ban the app over the summer. While it has proposed spinning off as a U.S. company with Oracle and Walmart becoming partial owners to satisfy those concerns, TikTok looks poised to survive. If so, the only question remaining is: How big can TikTok get? —Scott Nover Hottest Gadget Nintendo Switch When the pandemic suddenly gave millions of Americans more time to spend playing video games, the Nintendo Switch became a go-to platform, fueled by the viral popularity of its smash hit Animal Crossing: New Horizons. The easily accessible nature of the gameplay and its social element led Nintendo to reap a 428% year-over-year boost in operating profit, as of its most recent earnings report, and that number likely would have been even higher had Covid-19 not disrupted the company’s supply chain and made the console as tough to find during the pandemic as disinfecting wipes and hand sanitizer. —Patrick Kulp Hottest Shopping Platform Amazon Amazon quickly recovered from a pandemic-related hiccup and saw net sales grow 40% in Q2 thanks in part to a threefold lift in online grocery revenue. Meanwhile, the platform continues to push boundaries in retail, opening its first Fresh grocery store with smart shopping carts and pioneering a pay-by-palm service. Amazon further demonstrated its power to influence consumer behavior this year when 350 additional retailers offered copycat Prime Day sales to jump-start the holiday season. —Lisa Lacy Hottest Pandemic Pivot Zoom In mid-March, as people relocated from everyday settings like offices, churches, restaurants and banquet halls to within the walls of their homes, Zoom emerged as an essential lifeline to remotely replicate the world we once knew. Its popularity has borne fruit financially, too: Zoom’s stock price has increased sevenfold since the beginning of 2020. Such a meteoric rise doesn't come without a few bumps along the way—namely, concerns around privacy and security on the platform that came to a head in April. But there's no denying Zoom has become a massive force in modern society, and remarkably, it still does not accept advertising on its platform. —Diana Pearl Click here to check out all of this year’s Hot List honorees.

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The 2020 Digital Hot List: Platforms and Innovators That Kept Us Connected During Covid

Slack, TikTok and Zoom made sheltering in place a little more bearable

Digital Executive of the Year

Jack Dorsey, Twitter

Adweek Staff

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Digital Executive of the Year

Jack Dorsey, Twitter

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