The recent 7.0 magnitude earthquake that left more than 200 people dead or missing, 11 800 injured and around 100 000 homeless in Sichuan, China has received a lot of attention from the tech industry’s leading competitors. Baidu, Google and other leading software leaders in China have set up emergency platforms designated to find missing people in midst of the confusion. Among the leading charitables Apple, Samsung and Foxconn have all donated more than US$32-million according to The Next Web.
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These donations can be seen as both protecting an investment in an already established market as is the case with Samsung. The South Korean company is the biggest donor with US$9.7-million, and currently leads supply in the Chinese smartphone market. It holds 17.7% of the market share in a country with the world’s largest population — that’s an asset worth protecting. Samsung has also suffered allegations concerning child labor earlier this year. It’s important to rebuild and maintain an image of reliability and demonstrate a little soft power.
Taiwanese hardware company Foxconn produces hardware for leading tech companies like Apple, Samsung and Nokia. Apple and Foxconn have both pledged US$8-million in support of the victims of the earthquake. Apple and Foxconn have gone through their share of media bombshells. These include activists criticizing the Chinese factory working conditions, child labor allegations and the fact that potential American jobs are being outsourced. These forms of criticism have the potential to create heavy knocks when it comes to producing pricey products using cheap, questionable labor.
As mentioned by Tech in Asia, Google’s Person Finder together with many other sites have started contributing their services to both give and take records about missing people. Currently Google Person Finder has records of 1 100 people on it’s database. Other sites which offer dedicated services include Qihoo, Sohu and Panguso , which is a mobile-friendly site.
Chinese search Baidu meanwhile has a dedicated open message board on its Zhidao site. Zhidao can be used for general information concerning missing people, most affected ‘danger’ areas or any other live updates.
Live updates in suitable English of the events during the last three days can also be found here on China Daily.
