Tech in the Time of Corona(virus)
Chinese tech companies have answered the call of duty in the fight against the global epidemic.
The global health emergency brought on by the new coronavirus, which causes an illness officially known as COVID-19, has infected more than 80,000 people and has killed 2,873 lives as of March 1. Unlike during the SARS epidemic, technology is now deployed in a huge way to fight the coronavirus.
Social media and instant messaging
The first outbreak of SARS began on 16 November 2002 in Guangdong province in China. However, China only notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak on 10 February 2003. The advent of the smartphone and instant messaging apps like WeChat have made the suppression of information now much more difficult compared to the SARS outbreak.
By late December last year, word was circulating online that a mysterious pneumonia was spreading in Wuhan. The doctors in Wuhan were the first to sense the danger of the epidemic outbreak. On 30 December, a group of eight doctors circulated warnings of a new epidemic emerging in the city in various chat groups. These eight people were later arrested and punished by the Wuhan police for spreading rumours online. Among them was Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist, who later passed away due to the very same virus he tried to warn his peers about. The group of eight sparked off what was arguably the most significant whistleblowing case in China’s medical history made possible by technology.
While social media and instant messaging apps have vastly improved the spread of information, they have also amplified the spread of fake news and rumours. Conspiracy theories were rife. In one instance, rumours were going around that the new virus strain was “man-made” and “leaked” from the Wuhan Virology Institute, severely affecting its normal course of work.In another instance, a traditional Chinese medicine called 双黄连 (Shuang Huang Lian) was sold out on major Chinese e-commerce platforms after an announcement by the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica said that the medicine could help inhibit the coronavirus.
One woman in Zhejiang read online that eating raw garlic could help to fight the coronavirus. She ate so much garlic that she inflamed her throat could no longer speak and ended up seeking hospital treatment. She ate around 1.5kg of garlic over two weeks.
The spread of misinformation will do more harm than the actual virus itself. The Chinese government is understandably anxious to clamp down on that. However, many news agencies have now reported that the Chinese government was also clamping down hard on information. As a result of the suppression of information, China missed the golden window to contain the virus before its spread in Wuhan and subsequently to the rest of the world.
The Chinese government was also busy monitoring social media. SCMP also reported that several Chinese intellectuals have had their social media accounts suspended following their demands for freedom of expression and criticism of the government’s handling of the outbreak. Prominent professors from Wuhan University and Peking University had their WeChat accounts suspended for posts over protests of the extreme lockdown measures, lack of press freedom, and information blackout.
Vice further reported that the crackdowns have focused on individuals rather than a larger mass movement. A Chinese man alleged that the Chinese government was trying to track him down after he shared information about the virus with his family with on vacation in California. Another man based in Dongguan, Guangdong said officials visited his home after he responded to a tweet that was critical of how the Chinese government handled the spread of the virus.
Nonetheless, technology has also enabled global cooperation in fighting the virus. Tedros Adhanom, the Director-General of WHO, said that data from China on the pathogen allowed countries like Japan, South Korea, and Thailand to diagnose similar cases quickly. A Chinese lab also warned the German government of an infected person returning to Germany. The U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar also said that China’s compliance with international health regulations and uploading of the genetic sequence of the virus enabled the Americans to develop a test kit to screen for infections.
Big Data
China has turned to a mixture of cutting-edge technologies and old-fashioned surveillance monitoring to counter the spread of the coronavirus and limit who can or cannot go back to work. One example of such technology was the Health Code which was accessible through the Alipay app. The rating system was launched two weeks ago after the extended Chinese New Year as millions of Chinese return to work. The system took into consideration a person’s self-declared health status, travel history, and interaction with other people and assigned every resident a green, yellow, or red status indicating different levels of risk the person posed to public health. People with red QR codes were not allowed to enter public venues including subway stations, restaurants, and shopping malls for at least 14 days thereby severely restricting their ability to get on with their daily lives. People with yellow code face similar restrictions but only for 7 days.
However, Inkstone reported many cases of inconsistency in the algorithms leading to many cases of inaccurate ratings. Many people felt that they were inaccurately tagged but had no means of appealing. Those who were tagged red faced severe movement restrictions and many were clueless why they were tagged red and had no means to overturn their statuses.
Other digital tools powered by data have also been deployed to screen and identify high-risk people. A state-run platform called “close contact detector” allows employers to check if their employees have been in contact with confirmed or suspected patients. One citizen complained that this platform is no different from surveillance but such platforms have also proved their usefulness. Officials were able to identify 3,615 people who came close to a rice noodle shop after two shop owners fell ill by using data provided by mobile operators.
Artificial Intelligence
Many Chinese technology giants contributed computing power to help hospitals in their diagnosis. Chinese artificial intelligence start-up Yitu Technology, telecoms gear provider Huawei, and Alibaba are offering AI-backed services to help analyse the computerised axial tomography (CAT) scans. CAT scans are used by hospitals to diagnose coronavirus patients. Doctors usually take 5 to 15 minutes to analyze a CAT scan which could include more than 300 images in order to come up with a clinical diagnosis. Whereas, Alibaba said its new algorithm can complete the process within 20 seconds, alleviating the pressure of overburdened hospitals.
Didi has also teamed up with medical organizations to allow workers who need to perform tasks related to data analysis to use Didi’s servers for free.
China’s artificial intelligence champion SenseTime has also adapted its facial recognition product to identify people wearing masks. SenseTime explained that its algorithm is designed to read 240 facial feature key points around the eyes, moth, and noses and it can make a match with just parts of the face that are visible.
Drones and robots
The coronavirus is highly contagious and many tech companies have deployed robots and drones to reduce the dependence on human and minimize human interaction.
Meituan-Dianping introduced robots to some of its partners’ restaurants in Beijing to help bring food from kitchens to delivery works and customers.
Similarly, JD.com also introduced self-driving robots to bring goods to medical works in Wuhan. These robots help to reduce risk by cutting humans out of the equations, thereby reducing the risk of infection. Other companies like Pudu Technology have also installed robots to help deliver cooked food and medication. UV light bacteria-killing robots have also been deployed in Wuhan to perform sterilization.
Elsewhere, drones have been deployed to patrol the streets as part of the containment measures and chide bystanders who are not wearing masks.
Enterprise software and working from home
After the extended Chinese New Year, most Chinese resumed work but from home. DingTalk and WeChat Work were the two most widely used workplace apps and the surge in demand for video conferencing services even caused a temporary disruption on DingTalk as the servers were overwhelmed. Huawei’s WeLink and ByteDance’s Lark also faced similar crashes or slow loading times. China’s traditionally consumer-focused tech companies will likely turn their eyes to the corporate enterprise segment as the demand for such software in the country increases.
Education technology
As schools were close to reduce the chances of infection, education technology emerged as one of the biggest benefactors of the coronavirus crisis. Classes are continuing online for the country’s 180 million students through apps and online platforms.
China has also launched a massive “National Online Cloud Classroom” and has contracted companies like Baidu, Huawei, and Alibaba together with telecom providers China Telecom, China Unicom, and China Mobile to work together to provide the cloud capacity and bandwidth. The platform is now used by 50 million students simultaneously.
Youku, a video website, has started offering classes for primary and secondary school students after classes were suspended because of the virus.
Other online education companies including New Oriental Group and VIPKid have also started to offer free classes to students during the epidemic.
Taking online classes up another notch, gyms have also started to offer virtual classes through Douyin and TikTok to help customers stay fit. Many fitness clubs were forced to close following the lockdown.
Supermarkets
The retail scene was badly hit and many restaurants and supermarkets were forced to close. However, supermarkets which have undergone a digital transformation were able to benefit from the increase in online sales as people stayed at home and ordered groceries online instead of in person. Sun Art Retail Group, China’s largest hypermarket operator by market share, almost quadrupled its online sales during the Lunar New Year holiday compared to the same period last year. Sun Art’s revenue has remained steady despite having nearly 80% of the 486 hypermarkets shut during the height of the epidemic as residents switched to ordering fresh food and groceries deliveries online.
Alibaba’s Hema grocery store unit has also stepped up to solve the unemployment issues of restaurant staff who were hit by the lockdown by hiring their employees to meet the surging demand for deliveries. The outbreak has resulted in a shortage of delivery staff and idle employees at restaurant chains.
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Chinese tech giants have their own share of issues compared to their western counterparts. They have been constantly ensnared with data privacy concerns much more than their western peers. They have enjoyed a less competitive home market where Facebook, Twitter, Google, and YouTube are blocked. They have also been accused as “tools of the Chinese government”. Say what you may but when push comes to shove, these Chinese tech companies have stepped up and delivered when it matters the most.
