By Newley Purnell
Global technology firms are pitching in on earthquake rescue
efforts in Nepal with services such as free calls to and from the
country to functions that track survivors and relay the news to
worried relatives and friends overseas.
Search giant Google Inc. on Saturday launched its Person Finder
service, which allows users to post and search for information
about missing friends and loved ones. The feature, which Google
created in response to the destructive 2010 earthquake in Haiti,
showed it was tracking 5,100 records as of early Monday afternoon
Asia time.
Facebook Inc. activated Safety Check, which allows users in
areas affected by the earthquake to select a notification alerting
friends on the social network that they are OK.
"When disasters happen, people need to know their loved ones are
safe," Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg wrote Saturday in a
post on his Facebook page, referring to the feature developed last
year. "It's moments like this that being able to connect really
matters." The post was shared more than 41,000 times and received
more than 263,000 likes.
A Facebook spokeswoman said the alert covered users within 500
kilometers (310 miles) of the quake's epicenter, including not just
Nepal but parts of Bangladesh, Bhutan and India. "Millions of
people" so far have been marked as safe, she said.
Technology companies are refining services developed in recent
years to assist in tackling humanitarian crises, from disease
epidemics to hurricanes and temblors like the 7.8-magnitude quake
that rocked Nepal on Saturday, the biggest to hit the Himalayan
nation in 81 years.
They face additional challenges in a country where Internet and
mobile access is limited even at the best of times. Just 13% of
Nepal's roughly 30 million people access the Internet regularly,
according to the World Bank.
Following the quake, Internet access has been further restricted
and mobile phone connectivity is spotty.
Web connections are unreliable, with some Internet service
providers working and others not, according to American Evan
Kubicek, an executive at one startup in the capital, Katmandu.
Kubicek works in social and community development at CloudFactory,
which connects companies who want to outsource tasks with suitable
workers in emerging markets.
Cloudfactory staff members have been using text messages to
communicate over mobile networks, which seem to be working as usual
in the capital, he said. Mr. Kubicek has been using Facebook's
Messenger application, which allows users to communicate via text,
to check on staff. The company has also been using Google Forms, an
online survey tool, to poll staff on supplies they might need.
"We've pretty much confirmed that most of our staff our safe,"
Mr. Kubicek said by phone from Katmandu. "Now we're in a
coordinated effort to see who needs shelter."
Cyprus-based Viber Media Inc., a popular voice and messaging app
that Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten Inc. bought last year for
$900 million, said Sunday it had turned off billing for users in
Nepal to land lines or mobile phones globally. Users outside Nepal
can also use Viber to reach land lines and cellphones in the
country for free, according to Michael Shmilov, Viber's chief
operating officer.
The company has nearly 3 million users in the Himalayan nation,
Michael Shmilov, its chief operating officer, said in an email. He
said it was too early to say how many people have taken advantage
of the offer but Viber was "seeing very high volumes" of traffic
from Nepal.
Google also said Monday it is reducing the cost of calls made to
Nepal though its Google Voice service from 19 cents a minute to 1
cent a minute to better facilitate communication among friends and
family members. Google lost one of its own employees in the
disaster: An executive who was in the country to climb Mount
Everest perished when he was caught in an avalanche.
Facebook's Safety Check feature attracted many comments praising
the service for helping calm their fears over the fate of those
they know in Nepal.
"Small mercies! Thank you for informing," one Facebook user
wrote in response to a friend in Nepal using the feature to say he
was safe. "You were the first person to come to my mind. Hugs to
you and family."
Messages also included appeals for help from survivors, many of
them camped in tent villages as aftershocks continue to rattle
buildings that remain upright.
"My father and friends are in the area and one of the first
contact points we had to get some news was Facebook," wrote one
user in response to Mr. Zuckerberg's post. "This is good but we
need physical help too," wrote another. "Hope you will do
something!"
Twitter Inc., which has become widely used to spread information
quickly during disaster, is also helping to raise funds for
nonprofits in Nepal, a spokesman said Monday. For instance, the
official Twitter India account, which has 1.28 million followers,
has been used to share telephone numbers for police and medical
agencies that are contributing to relief efforts, as has Twitter's
official global public policy account.
The company's co-founder, Jack Dorsey, also weighed in with a
tweet to his 2.95 million followers. "Support @UNICEF relief
efforts to help families affected by #NepalEarthquake," he wrote
Sunday, providing a link to an online donation page.
Write to Newley Purnell at newley.purnell @wsj.com
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