Most countries worldwide are taking stringent measures to limit coronavirus’ spread by imposing nationwide or state-wise lockdowns. And while self-isolation is an important step in breaking the chain and curbing the virus’ spread, there are repercussions of this as well. The most evident impact of lockdown can be seen on a country’s economy. While it is not easy to keep track of the economic impact that’s happening due to the novel virus, the Amsterdam-based startup Owlin has come up with a new solution that does exactly that.
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Businesses can keep track of COVID-19 impact with Owlin’s COVID-19 Impact Monitor
In these turbulent times, it is of utmost importance that businesses get accurate information in a timely fashion. However, it can be a daunting task with numerous articles related to COVID-19 being published every day. To make things easier, the Amsterdam-based AI-powered text and news analytics solutions startup Owlin has launched the COVID-19 Impact Monitor that leverages AI to analyse over 185,000 articles on a daily basis.
With this, the monitor discovers the latest trends and economic developments around the pandemic. It uses articles around the web, along with other financial data sources such as stock prices. Using Natural Language Processing or NLP, the monitor keeps track of important themes around the coronavirus pandemic such as bankruptcies and lays-offs. In addition, one can further explore the data to determine COVID-19 impact per country, industry sector, and even individual company.
“What is the economic damage today? Economists and businesses alike are breaking their heads over that question”, says Sjoerd Leemhuis, Co-founder & CEO, Owlin. “The situation is changing so rapidly that the data traditionally used to measure the economy is out of date as soon as it is produced. That’s why we have developed this tool. It allows governments, financial institutions, and corporates to get a grip on the situation.”
You can access Owlin’s COVID-19 Impact Monitor here.
Key Metrics of COVID-19 Impact Monitor at a glance
Owlin released the COVID-19 Impact Tracker after it received a noted response from its clients who needed to track the impact and risks that COVID-19 will pose on investment portfolios, supply chains or the competitive landscape. Since the tracker parses through numerous articles and financial data sources everyday, it can identify trends as well. We asked Owlin’s CEO and Co-founder Sjoerd Leemhuis about some of the most interesting data points the monitor found and what the industry needs to learn from them.
Leemhuis says, “We noticed that immediately after creating the monitor, there was an increase in bankruptcy-related news and layoffs, which followed immediately after the countries hit first by the pandemic took measures. For instance, layoff indicator in the tourism sector is going through the roof while layoffs in the technology sector are way more lower and stable. This provides a good indicator of how the official reporting and figures will look later when they get published. The COVID-19 monitor gives you a head start in understanding the impact on these sectors.”
This article is produced in collaboration with StartupAmsterdam. Read more about our partnering opportunities
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