After internet and phone connections were lost, the Bridgefy app had more than a million downloads in 48 hours.
The people of Burma have massively downloaded the Bridgefy messaging application, made in Mexico, after the military-led coup d’état that stopped internet service in the Asian country.
Following Monday’s arrest of senior leaders in the country, including state councilor and leader of the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD), Aung San Suu Kyi, communications were interrupted in the capital Naipyidó and in the country’s largest city, Rangoon, as in other parts of the country.
Although internet and telephone service were restored that same day, some social leaders opposed to the coup advised that citizens use the Bridgefy application in case of new power outages. So the ‘app’ was downloaded more of 1.1 million times in 48 hours.
Bridgefy’s software allows you to send messages through an algorithm that works with Bluetooth connections, so that people can communicate without internet, something that does not happen with services like WhatsApp and Telegram.
The Mexican app became popular in Asia in 2020, during protests in Hong Kong and Thailand.
Bridgefy was founded in 2014 by Mexican entrepreneur Jorge Ríos and designed so that people could keep track of messages in emergencies such as earthquakes, without having to rely on the internet.