Image: Facebook/@dingdongdantesofficial, Instagram/@DingDong PH
As the entertainment industry is put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic, actor Dingdong Dantes is set to launch a delivery app to help out displaced showbiz workers.
The app, aptly called DingDong PH, is the brainchild of Dantes, who admitted that he was not that in tune with technology prior to the pandemic.
“Ako ang isang taong hindi mo aasahan sa bahay pagdating sa tech. Siguro if you asked me 13 weeks ago or 14 weeks ago. Pero again, just like so many people, this pandemic became a gamechanger para sa akin and para sa bahay namin, sa buhay namin,” Dantes said in an online conference last Thursday, June 11.
(I am a person you cannot really count on in the house when it comes to tech. Maybe if you asked me 13 or 14 weeks ago. But again, just like so many people, this pandemic became a gamechanger for my family’s lives.)
The live chat, organized by law firm Gorriceta Africa Caution & Saavedra, was also joined by Rico Blanco, Matteo Guidicelli, Drew Arellano and Nico Bolzico.
“As many people know, this also became an equalizer, it leveled the playing field, pero (but) it has crushed and damaged some industries but it also paved the way for some to flourish,” he noted.
DingDong PH came about after Dantes got inspiration from a problem he and his wife, Marian Rivera, had to deal with involving the latter’s flower business.
“One time, meron siyang isang kliyente na kailangan niyang pag-deliveran ng bulaklak. Pagdating doon, nagkamali ng pinto, tapos nasira pa. So last minute I had to help,” he said.
(One time, she had to deliver flowers to a client. The flowers were delivered to the wrong house, and then they got damaged.)
Dantes shared that after he stepped up by delivering the flowers himself to the client, the idea for creating DingDong PH was born.
“Doon nagsimula ‘yung idea, at lumawak na lang siya (That is where I got the idea, which expanded as time went by). In the past weeks, after talking with friends who share the same vision and passion, an idea was developed, hence the birth of Doorbell Technologies,” he said.
Dantes also shared that by venturing into this business, he would like it to have a social impact, which is why he will be hiring displaced workers of the entertainment industry to help them out.
“Kung gagawa ako ng isang bagay, gusto ko klaro ang kaniyang social impact (If I am going to do something, I want it to have a clear social impact)… ‘Yung (the) inspiration also behind this is the fact that I have several workmates who lost their jobs in the entertainment industry,” the actor said.
“’Yung riders na gagamitin natin, ‘yung nawalan ng trabaho dito sa industriya namin (The riders we are going to hire are those who lost their jobs in our industry),” he added.
Dantes has yet to announce when the app will exactly be launched, but Rivera has already given fans a teaser for DingDong PH via Instagram on June 7.
Even before the conceptualization of the app, both Dantes and Rivera had been helping those in need amid the COVID-19 pandemic. For one, Dantes previously helped Filipino jobseekers secure online jobs during the quarantine.
Dantes, through his organization YesPinoy Foundation, was also able to help over 3,600 families by giving them food packs amid the global health crisis. /ra
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