The development of live streaming e-commerce, especially amid the pneumonia outbreak, has prompted universities and colleges in China to cultivate professionals in the field.

A student with the Yangzhou Polytechnic Institute sells oranges through livestreaming. (Photo/Wang Biao)

Meeting the growing need, The Yangzhou Polytechnic Institute established the school of live streaming e-commerce in December 2019, the first of its kind in China, setting up an e-commerce major in live broadcast.

As numerous enterprises have resumed work online amid the pandemic, live streaming e-commerce is believed to usher in new opportunities, which means that industries will be lacking professionals in the next few years, said Yan Zhengying, director of the s chool of innovation and entrepreneurship, Yangzhou Polytechnic Institute.

The industry not only lacks hosts, but professionals for the whole chain, including copywriters and operators for the live broadcasts, Yan pointed out.

Considering this, the institute has developed courses varying from marketing and planning, short video production, media operations and music data analysis, calligraphy and floral design.

"We hope to cultivate the market insights and professional abilities of the students and equip them with skills so that they could better suit the market," Yan said.

Working with over 10 brands, the institute has built 47 broadcasting studios so that the students could enhance and sharpen their abilities

The live streaming e-commerce major of the institute provides professional courses, attracting about 30 students, and amateur courses, bringing in roughly 300 students.

The market scale of China's live streaming e-commerce industry reached 433.8 billion yuan ($61.2 billion) in 2019, according to data from iiMedia Research, a Chinese firm specializing in data analysis for new economic industries.

With the growing demand, the number of live streaming users is expected to rise to 524 million this year, with the market exceeding 900 billion yuan ($127 billion).