"For a homebody like me, staying at home these days is not a problem as I can still avail delivery services and enjoy TV shows," Han Hong, a netizen, posted on Weibo, Chinese equivalent of Twitter, during the Spring Festival holiday this year.  

While the novel coronavirus outbreak has forced many Chinese to stay at home, they have continued online consumption and turned to new forms of entertainment, which is providing impetus to the Chinese economy. 

Although the epidemic has had a huge impact on the service, manufacturing and trade sectors, especially consumer industries such as tourism, catering and entertainment, it has also benefited industries such as e-commerce, online games and entertainment, as well as medical services, according to a report published by the Shanghai Institute for International Studies on January 31.  

Since many people have continued online shopping at home, the delivery sector has remained busy. UU runner, a delivery service platform, told Dahe.cn that consumer demand for cooked food, foodstuff and medical products such as masks has greatly increased this year. 

Online food delivery platforms such as Meituan Dianping have introduced special services for users to pick up their food in containers without face-to-face contacts with deliverymen. 

The State Post Bureau of China reported on January 30 that China's postal industry collected 81.25 million parcels from January 24 to 29, a year-on-year increase of 76.6 percent. In the same period, it delivered 78.17 million parcels, up 110.34 percent year on year.  

Besides shopping online, many people have also enjoyed playing games and watching videos and live streaming at home during the festival. Data from China's tech giant Tencent shows that Honor of Kings, one of its video game products, received around 2 billion yuan ($285 million) from its game players on January 24, the Lunar New Year, up from 1.3 billion ($185 million) on the same day last year.  

According to Wang Yi, a professor with the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, industries such as online entertainment can greatly benefit during the epidemic control as many people stay at home. The catering industry may also shift to an innovative mode, where food cooked in central kitchens is delivered to stores for sale. "Traditional industries will need to further improve quality to cope with the difficult period," Wang told Chinanews.com. 

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