Douyin, TikTok and Jinritoutiao’s parent company, ByteDance, has announced a CNY 200 million donation to the China Red Cross Foundation.
Wuhan city, epicenter of the corona-virus. Image credit: Photo by Benjamin Chris/Unsplash
The fund has been set up to help China tackle the current coronavirus crisis. According to Chinese media, this special fund will be mainly used to protect the medical staff who are treating the virus. If any of the medical staff are unfortunately infected while treating a patient, they will receive CNY 100,000 from this fund, the figure rising up to 1 million for treating and curing a patient. The specific awards and rules will be implemented by the China Red Cross Foundation.
Since January 2020, the outbreak of the new SARS-like virus has affected everyone in China. At the time of writing, more than 500 citizens have been infected. “I hope this fund can be a supplement to government guarantees and provide help and support to frontline medical staff,” said ByteDance.
Prior to this, in order to let users know the epidemic situation and share prevention knowledge in real-time, ByteDance launched related topics through its products. Jinritoutiao launched a ‘Fight Pneumonia’ channel and listed nearby popular clinics. Douyin, widely known outside China as TikTok, added more features related to the spread of the virus. It launched a #FightPneumonia page that "provides updates on the spread of the coronavirus, expert reports and analysis, as well as relevant information on prevention," according to Chinese business and technology website TMT. The page aggregated information regarding where the illness is spreading and what prevention measures people can take.
Meanwhile, Chinese movie fans can catch the premiere of a much-anticipated new comedy this holiday weekend under a CNY 630 million deal to issue the film over the internet, as fears of a deadly new virus keep audiences away from cinemas.
The Hong Kong-listed Huanxi Media Group announced on Friday an agreement with Beijing Bytedance Network to show its new movie ‘Lost in Russia’ on Bytedance's online platforms.
Bytedance said, given the efforts to reduce the risks of big gatherings, it had secured the deal to let fans watch ‘Lost in Russia’ for free on its apps.
In order to better serve and support medical institutions and angels in white fighting against the frontline of the epidemic, Chinese e-commerce giant JD has launched an emergency plan to ensure uninterrupted logistics services in nearly 300 cities and thousands of districts and counties during the Spring Festival From now until the 15th day of the first lunar month, priority will be given to orders designated by medical institutions.