FireChat app explodes thanks to Hong Kong protests

Micha Benoliel came to Hong Kong for a convenient layover between a technology conference in India and strategic partnership meetings in China. He stayed for the political unrest. Mr. Benoliel, a 42-year-old French-born entrepreneur, is the chief executive of Open Garden, a Silicon Valley start-up whose innovative, barely six-month-old app, FireChat, has become the rage in Hong Kong during the pro-democracy protests around the city. The idea behind FireChat is to enable smartphones to speak directly to each other — whether or not there is a working cellular or Wi-Fi connection — through the small Bluetooth or Wi-Fi radios in the phones themselves. To the tech-savvy democracy protesters in Hong Kong, FireChat has offered the potential to stay connected and organized even if the authorities shut down cellphone service.