(Yicai Global) Aug. 29 -- Users of Tencent Meeting, the Chinese tech giant’s cloud-based video conferencing platform, had trouble logging in this morning as companies and schools rushed to move meetings and classes online after a new wave of Covid-19 was reported in China’s southern economic hub of Shenzhen.

The surge in user numbers affected the app’s log-in function, Shenzhen-based Tencent Meeting said in a Weibo post.

Six streets in Shenzhen’s Futian and Luohu districts began a four-day home quarantine today, all 24 of the city’s metro lines closed, and companies were asked to work from home, after the city had 11 more domestically transmitted Covid cases between 12 a.m. and 12 p.m. yesterday.

Launched in December 2019, Tencent Meeting became hugely popular following the start of the pandemic.

In January 2020, it had 770,000 monthly active users, compared with 77.4 million and 30.6 million for rivals Ding Ding and WeCom. Two months later, its MAU jumped to 58.2 million. According to Tencent’s first-quarter earnings report, the app had 300 million registered users and over 100 million MAUs.

Editor: Futura Costaglione