The thing dominating the news this past week has been the impact of COVID-19 (aka coronavirus) on everything globally. The spread of coronavirus made me think about how in tech / digital marketing there’s a measure called Viral Coefficient which is defined as:

a number which tells you how many customers each is your present customer bringing to you on an average. For example: if your viral coefficient is 2 then each of your current customer is bringing in 2 customers to your business. If it is 0.9 then each one is bringing 0.9, in other words 10 of your customers are bringing in 9 customers.

Over the weekend, I rewatched 2011’s Contagion by Steven Soderbergh which accurately highlights epidemiology’s R Naught, the basic reproduction number which means:

the expected number of cases directly generated by one case in a population where all individuals are susceptible to infection.

One idea of Viral Coefficiency celebrates the distribution of an app, meme, buzzfeed article, song, etc. The other idea…prepares for an epidemic outbreak by measuring the spread of a virus.

The effects of coronavirus has been shocking knowing it’s produced announcement like these:

Coronavirus Cancellations And Travel Bans: Google Is Latest : NPR

Companies are curbing employee travel and canceling major events as they try to minimize disruption from the growing coronavirus outbreak.

The following companies are curtailing travel or events, or encouraging people to work from home:

Adobe canceled its annual summit in Las Vegas, saying it would become an “online-only” experience.

Amazon is restricting all non-essential employee travel, including within the U.S.

Apple has restricted employee travel to China, Italy and South Korea, according to Bloomberg News.

Facebook called off its biggest event of the year, its F8 developers conference set for May. It said it would instead offer “locally hosted events, videos and live streamed content.” It also canceled its Global Marketing Summit in San Francisco.

Google, in addition to cancelling I/O, scrapped its Global News Initiative summit and said it would turn its Cloud Next conference into a digital event. Both events were slated to take place in the San Francisco Bay area in April.

JPMorgan has curbed non-essential employee travel, according to Bloomberg News.

Microsoft canceled its MVP Summit, and said it would turn the networking event into an online-only gathering.

Salesforce prohibited international travel and restricted “all but the most critical” domestic travel, and is making customer events digital instead of in person.

Square, the San Francisco-based payments company, is “strongly” encouraging employees to work from home. It also halted non-essential business travel in the U.S. and internationally, is “discouraging in-person attendance at internal and external conferences and business events,” according to a spokesman.

Twitter is encouraging all employees to work from home if they are able. Workers in Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea are required to work from home. It also suspended “all non-critical business travel and events.”

N.B.A., Responding to Coronavirus, Encourages Fist Bumps Over High-Fives - The New York Times

The league sent a memo to teams explaining ways to avoid spreading the virus during interactions with fans, such as not using a borrowed pen to sign autographs.

Among the league’s recommendations was that players should opt for fist bumps instead of high-fives when interacting with fans. The memo also suggested players steer clearing of borrowing items like pens and markers from fans when signing autographs.

Flights cancelled due to coronavirus outbreak, with Six Nations games postponed - latest news

The coronavirus crisis has led to England’s Six Nations game against Italy in Rome being postponed, the new Bond film launch being delayed and Flybe collapsing causing travel chaos.

SXSW Cancellations: Amazon Studios Pulls Out Over Coronavirus Concerns – Deadline

EXCLUSIVE: At this evening hour, we’re hearing that Amazon Studios is pulling out of this year’s SXSW, 10 days before the festival kicks off in Austin on March 13. The move includes all…

Take care out there!