Residents do exercise at home following online instructions in Xining, capital of Northwest China's Qinghai province. (Photo/China News Service)
Lifestyle apps and fitness e-tutorials ...virus cloud proves to have silver lining
When she started using lifestyle mobile app Little Red Book, little did Tracey Zhang, 27, a subeditor at a Beijing news publication, imagine that during epidemics, staying indoors and eating home-made meals using online recipes would prove potentially life-saving.
To curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, the Chinese authorities extended the Spring Festival holiday till Feb 2, and encouraged people to work from home if they could do so.
Thus, hundreds of millions of people such as Zhang have been spending more time at home, which led to spikes in the usage of online services provided by internet-based enterprises.
So, one day at 11 am, Zhang reached out for her smartphone to consult Little Red Book, which is known as Xiaohongshu in Chinese. Users such as Zhang routinely look it up for every conceivable help or guidance. Zhang wanted a chicken curry recipe so she could cook the dish for lunch for her husband and herself.
Little Red Book boasts more than 250 million users. They double up as e-guides, sharing their life experiences with others, giving a new twist to the term sharing economy.
