Child trafficking is common in China, where population control policies, although recently relaxed, have bolstered a traditional bias for male offspring. The Ministry of Public Security reported 611 missing children were found last year, Xinhua said.
The “Tuanyuan”, or “reunion” in Chinese, app developed by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd was launched in May and has allowed police officers to share information and work together.
The Tuanyuan app helped Chinese authorities recover hundreds of missing children last year, Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday, in a country where child trafficking is rampant.
Users near the location where a child has disappeared receive push notifications, including photos and descriptions. Notifications are sent to users farther and farther from the location of the disappearance if the child is still not found.
A new version of the app in November has expanded its reach through cooperation with other popular mobile apps, such as Alibaba’s online shopping website Taobao, search engine Baidu , Tencent Holdings Ltd’s instant messaging software QQ and mobile ride-sharing platform Didi Chuxing.
