The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is affecting businesses around the world to a greater or lesser extent, and at a recent annual Samsung meeting in Seoul, Chief Executive Ki-Nam Kim spoke about how the company expects its main operations to be affected by the recent unfortunate events.

Samsung anticipates the global smartphone market to shrink as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, states Business Insider. As we’ve reported a couple of months ago, Samsung was betting big on 5G this year, and the good news is that demand for 5G smartphones should continue to increase. On the other hand, the 5G smartphone segment will grow at a slower pace than initially thought, and Samsung will have to revisit its expectations.

Samsung’s semiconductor business should continue to grow

Meanwhile, demand for data center and network components is expected to steadily rise, despite the coronavirus pandemic. And while other chipmakers will reportedly focus on improving their manufacturing processes throughout the year, Samsung expects to cash in on its data center and network solutions. Many clients will want to migrate more of their data center operations to the cloud, and network operators will reportedly increase their demand in the long run as well. This should boost Samsung’s semiconductor business.

Samsung has been on top of things ever since it discovered the first case of coronavirus at its Gumi plant weeks ago. The company has been taking different measures to combat the epidemic (now a pandemic). It advised its employees to work from home, it shut down its Experience Stores in numerous countries, and it even provided useful guidelines on how to clean your smartphone to decrease the chances of infection. The company also offered free Galaxy Sanitizing Services at its official service centers around the world.