Droves of Chinese employees working from home crash office apps amid coronavirus outbreak
- Demand for video conferencing services and other online workplace services soared on Monday as employees in China resumed work after the Lunar New Year holiday
- Most of the country is working remotely this week as authorities tell businesses to stay closed, to help prevent the spread of a deadly new coronavirus
Popular office apps in China crashed temporarily on Monday due to soaring demand as employees nationwide resumed work after an extended Lunar New Year break, with most people logging in remotely amid the outbreak of a deadly new coronavirus.
On the first day back at work, tens of millions of users overwhelmed the servers of DingTalk and WeChat Work, two of China’s most widely used workplace apps by Chinese tech giants Alibaba and Tencent respectively, by attempting to start the day with virtual morning meetings.
A surge in demand for video conferencing services at 9am caused a temporary disruption on DingTalk, the app said in a statement on China’s Twitter-like social platform Weibo, adding that the service was restored before noon.
WeChat Work’s video conferencing feature was also disrupted as millions of companies worked remotely via the app, according to a post on its official Weibo account. The service later resumed operation after urgent repairs on the network and expanded capacity, according to the post on Monday afternoon.
Most of China is working remotely this week as at least 24 of the country’s 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions including Beijing and Shanghai have told businesses not to reopen before February 10 at the earliest.