The World Health Organization (WHO) today officially labeled the new coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) as a global pandemic (Pandemic).
At present, the new coronavirus epidemic is spreading globally, prompting governments and enterprises in various countries to introduce countermeasures.
So how do global technology companies respond?
In the early days of the outbreak, Chinese technology companies pioneered a series of prevention and control measures.
Now, China's epidemic prevention and control has obviously improved, but the epidemic has spread globally, including the United States, South Korea, and Japan, where the technology giants are located.
Taken together, working from home and reducing unnecessary business travel activities have become the main countermeasures for global technology companies.
Epidemic spreads globally: tech giants such as Apple, Google begin to respond
Apple: Closes retail stores, employees work from home
In the early days of the epidemic, Apple closed all 42 retail stores in China (most of which have now been restored) and reduced unnecessary business travel activities.
Now, with the spread of the epidemic globally, Apple has closed 17 retail stores in Italy and has taken measures in other countries, including minimizing the contact between retail store employees and customers, and no longer actively offering products such as Apple Watch Try it out, remove in-store seats, etc.
At the same time, Apple also requires employees in Silicon Valley and multiple offices around the world to work from home. Sources said that Apple has postponed the spring conference scheduled for the end of March.
Google: almost all work from home, cancels I/O
Google has now basically required all employees to work from home, and currently only Latin America has not made this adjustment. In order to avoid gathering people, Google also canceled the annual global developer conference Google I / O.
Google is also cleaning up false information on searches and YouTube, and temporarily banning all medical mask ads.
Microsoft: Working from home cancels unnecessary travel
Seattle is now the hardest hit area in the United States. Microsoft has advised employees in Seattle, San Francisco, South Korea, and Singapore to work from home, and previously required all Chinese employees to work from home and cancel all unnecessary travel.
Amazon: Unpaid leave indefinitely this month, employees postpone unnecessary travel
Amazon has adjusted some work regulations, such as allowing employees to take an unpaid leave indefinitely this month, and requiring employees to clean workstations and vehicles with disinfectant wipes at the beginning and end of each shift.
Sick Amazon employees were asked to stay home and seek medical treatment, while others were asked to postpone unnecessary travel.
Facebook: Work from Home
Facebook advised all San Francisco Bay Area employees and temporary employees to start working from home and withdrew from the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference.
Facebook is also cracking down on disinformation and conspiracy theories on the site.
Twitter: All employees work remotely from home
Twitter has announced that it has suspended all non-essential business travel activities and required all employees to work remotely.
Samsung: Cases discovered, multiple temporary closure of chip factories
At present, Samsung Gumi Semiconductor Factory in South Korea has found 6 confirmed cases and has temporarily closed the factory several times.
In addition, Samsung also cancelled the groundbreaking ceremony for the R & D Center in Hanoi, Vietnam, which was originally planned to be held on February 29.
Short-term rental website Airbnb: San Francisco Bay Area employees work from home and cancel customer orders affected by the epidemic for free.
LG, Ericsson: Withdrawing from the World Mobile Telecommunications Conference due to concerns about the spread of the epidemic.
Spotify: All employees work from home for at least two weeks.
Professional social networking site LinkedIn: San Francisco Bay Area employees are required to work from home.
Japan NTT and Hitachi: Encourage employees to work from home to prevent the spread of the epidemic.
Looking back at the beginning of the epidemic:
The countermeasures of China's major technology companies (focused on the Spring Festival):
Ali, Tencent, Baidu, Byte Beat start homework mechanism after the festival
Alibaba Group, Tencent, Baidu, and Byte Beat all issued notices to employees during the Spring Festival and started the home office mechanism. Tencent WeChat is still cracking down on rumor-like information and deleting the illegal content.
Didi: Install protective film. Drivers can refuse to carry passengers without masks.
In order to prevent and control the epidemic, Didi indicated that passengers who do not wear masks during the epidemic, the driver has the right to refuse carriage (cancel the order). At the same time, Didi also installed a plastic protective film for the network car to isolate the driver and passengers.
Didi has also developed an online "outbreak traceability system" that allows passengers to know if the vehicle is disinfected by simply scanning the code.
Meituan: Launch of "Contactless Safe Sending" Tracking Rider's Body Temperature in Real Time
Meituan Takeaway launched the "contactless delivery" service. Customers can view the rider's safety card that shows the temperature of the delivery rider and the disinfection of the lunch box in real time.
Meituan Takeaway then launched merchant electronic security cards and paper security cards to show the health status of chefs and packers in real time.
JD.com: unmanned delivery vehicle enabled
During the epidemic, JD.com launched an unmanned logistics robot in Wuhan to distribute medical supplies to designated hospitals in Wuhan that treat patients with new crown pneumonia.
JD.com has advanced the mass production of unmanned delivery vehicles in advance, and further increased its launch efforts.
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