The new coronavirus has spread rapidly and has worried people from all over the world, especially from China, the country where the first cases were registered. The fear of contagion greatly increased the demand for surgical masks, a fact that led Youpin, Xiaomi’s online store, to go offline. On the afternoon of last Wednesday (28), when e-commerce started selling new batches of the product, the site received so much traffic that the server was brought down.
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Lots of medical masks went on sale at 4pm. Due to the high demand for the product, Youpin decided to limit the purchase to just one package per user. With 20 masks each, the packages cost 39.9 yuan (about R $ 25, in direct conversion). The site also offered a special price for customers in Hubei province, who are at the center of the outbreak. However, few were able to complete the purchase. The platform could not stand the increase in traffic volume and went off the air. In a statement, Xiaomi confirmed the server overload and apologized for what happened.
Coronavirus: Xiaomi shop goes down after high demand for surgical masks – Photo: Reproduction / Xiaomi Youpin
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«The demand for medical and surgical masks is unprecedented. We are ready to return online as soon as possible, but the traffic we received was far beyond our imagination. The server is down. We are sorry that some users are unable to make the purchase. Although Xiaomi Youpin has limited power, we will continue to do everything possible to coordinate the supply of resources and ensure that it is sufficient, «said the company.
Mask has been used by Chinese to prevent transmission of the coronavirus – Photo: Disclosure / Xinhua / Bei He
In addition to the promotion on the website, Xiaomi made a donation in the amount of 300,000 yuan (about R $ 182,000 in direct conversion) of lots with N95 masks, medical masks and thermometers for the quarantined region. To avoid contamination of employees and customers, the company decided to close all physical stores in China. To date, 170 have died in the country from the coronavirus, which has infected more than 7,700 people worldwide, in at least 15 other countries. No infected patients outside China died.
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