Independent self-help tools flourish outside Big Tech platforms as Shanghai’s residents come together to beat lockdown
- A wave of online questionnaires, mini-programmes and online documents emerged in the initial days of Shanghai’s Covid-19 flare-up
- Several self-help digital websites and tools have surfaced to handle a bigger volume of requests or to suit special purposes amid Shanghai lockdown
When Shanghai resident Stanley Liu, who runs a small film production studio, learned in April that areas in the city east of the Huangpu River would not be emerging from lockdown as per the original plan, the first person he thought of was an elderly neighbour who earns a living by recycling rags.
He joined the local Residents Committee in Xuhui District, with the aim of helping the elderly in his compound. He then had a bigger idea to see if various self-help documents appearing on social media for those living under lockdown could be pooled into one manual.
So he called a friend who is a software engineer.
“When it comes to communications, everyone trusts mainstream tools like Tencent Docs and WeChat Official Accounts,” said 37-year-old Liu, referring to two products from tech giant Tencent Holdings. “But when the traffic becomes too heavy to handle, you may not be able to open what you’re looking for and there can be information delays.”
That is how he and software engineer Paul Qi had the idea of creating easy-to-use features for a website registered under Liu’s company to connect those desperate for food and physical and mental health support during lockdown to potential solutions.
