In the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic in Korea, on the 25th of February 2020, two students in Daegu, Korea developed an app/website called “CoronaNOW”. Hyung-bin Choi and Chan-Hyeong Lee, who were only middle school boys, developed a real-time website that provides various information such as the number of confirmed patients, discharged patients, domestic examinations, death toll, and much more. Since the coronavirus is spreading more significantly in Daegu than other cities, the development of the website became an important topic among both students and adults. People were not only amazed by the accuracy and the quickness of the website but also by the fact that two boys who were only 16 years old managed to operate the website while doing their schoolwork. According to an interview from Global Economy Times, the developers said they were inspired by the problems of people believing in inauthentic, or “fake news”; they wanted people to have the right information about the COVID-19.

In an interview by Maeil news, Hyung-bin Choi and Chan-Hyeong Lee explained how the website works. Hand-operated by them to update the latest information, the website gathers accurate information from the latest news, well-known broadcasts, and the KCDC (Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). For information overseas, they put together various reports from Tencent, Bloomberg, and other British medical websites. The maximum concurrent users and the number of people who downloaded the app have exceeded 30,000. The daily users viewing the website are 2 million.

According to Hyung-Bin Choi’s personal Instagram account, many corporations in Korea are supporting the two students without cost, and Korean citizens are showing gratitude and sending supporting letters to the developers. Also, they have been receiving lots of messages from reporters. Through his Instagram, he announced that their profit will be used to support Daegu citizens by giving out free masks. They also said that the website was not created for the purpose of making money and that they are hoping this pandemic would end soon so that everyone can go back to their normal lives. Hyung-Bin Choi has been updating current profit and his work process through his Instagram. He said the purpose of this Instagram account was to ensure the transparent use of their profit and show his gratitude for doctors, staff, and every Korean citizen.

▲ image by Sedaily News

As reported in “NewsWorks” recently, on May 29th, 2020, they donated over 10000 dollars to the “Daegu Fire and Safety Department” by using advertising earnings of their “CoronaNow” website. On the same day, he posted a picture of him and a chief from the ‘Daegu Fire and Safety Department’ participating in “Thanks to challenge” that has been spread on social media. Their efforts to contribute to society are still in progress.