Students made investments during the online education period

By: Mohammad Azmi Ahmad Hamaydeh

The pandemic period highlighted the downfall of many businesses and brought life to opportunities that were never thought possible. This marked the rise of businesses within new media, and students around the world were able to create and run successful businesses from the comfort of their homes.

The pandemic brought all physical interaction to a complete halt and services that could, or would have been available to the public were no longer an option.

This meant that the world would spend months without shopping or going to the movies and would just generally stay home.

Although this may seem trivial to many in the time of the pandemic, to others these were necessary luxuries.

Source: Forbes

Cryptocurrency, Tiktok, Instagram stores, and drop shipping are small examples of how anyone could have invested their time to create a passive income during the lockdown period.

Ali Al Robia, a 21-year-old who has officially become a millionaire dealing in cryptocurrency said, “I have spent countless hours doing research, trying to collect data and information, and then proceeded to invest $5000 in crypto.”

“Any person who had done enough research knew that it was a risk, but the reward outweighed the risk no matter how you looked at it,” he elaborates.

“Now I have used the money that I had initially made from crypto to invest in real-estate and tech development.”

Others took safer routes and created a business with almost no risk, many took a concept that had already been set in place and tried to implement the use of new media to reach a wider audience.

Merissa Alyea, a 22-year-old student at Taylor’s University in Malaysia, started an Instagram store named “Piringhitamlama” that continues to grow in popularity amongst music lovers in Malaysia.

“I started an online business selling vinyl of different genres, releases, and country pressings. However, to differentiate my vinyl store in the online market, I focus on selling vinyl that was released from its original era. Hence, the name of my store translates to old vinyl in English.”

“As a collector myself, I feel that vinyl released from their respective era does have a major sound difference compared to remastered vinyl that’s common in the market,” said Merissa.

She added, “Covid 19 has helped me grow my business, as many people are forced to stay home, it gives them more time to tend to their hobbies which for a large number of Malaysians, is collecting vinyl. So, yes - Covid has boosted my business.”

Students are using their creativity and the demand that grew in Covid to create a supply chain that would no longer require the consumers to go to a physical store, which will most likely shape the success of their future.

Many students, who did not expect to make any money, used social media to portray their creative selves and started to make money from sponsors and views. One student by the name of Jonathan Gonzalves did just that.

“I had no idea that making Tiktok videos would one day create an income for me.

“I just wanted to create a funny or informative video to share amongst friends and family and never did I think that my videos would go viral,” said Jonathan Gonzalves.

The opportunities that were created during the Covid period may disappear in the foreseeable future, and those who took advantage of the pandemic to create and produce will share that the pandemic was a huge factor in their success.