The market transaction volume of the sharing economy stood at 3.3 trillion yuan in 2019, a year-on-year increase of 11.6 percent, according to a report.

People riding sharing bicycles (Photo/Xinhua)

Meanwhile, the sharing economy has played a positive role in stabilizing employment, with the number of people involved in the sector reaching about 800 million, said the report released by the Sharing Economy Research Center of the State Information Center.

In addition, the sharing economy has helped to optimize the structure of the service industry and transform consumption patterns. In 2019, sharing businesses related to taxis, catering and accommodation accounted for 37.1 percent, 12.4 percent, and 7.3 percent of the industry, an increase of 20.5, 7.8, and 3.8 percentage points from 2016, respectively.

While the epidemic has posed a challenge to this sector, it has also generated new business models. With large numbers of employees at catering companies left idle amid the pneumonia outbreak, these companies have shared their employees with Internet-based enterprises, which not only reduced the burden on catering companies, but also met the needs of Internet companies generated by new types of retail.

Innovation in sharing economy models can help alleviate the impact of the epidemic, meet people’s demands amid the pandemic and help the relevant companies achieve long-term development, said Yu Fengxia, deputy director of the Sharing Economy Research Center.

The implementation of China's new e-commerce law starting in January 1, 2019, meant the development of this sector has been regulated by the law. Yu suggested continuing to promote institutional innovations that are helpful to the development of the sharing economy, and to improve supporting regulations to the related policies that have been already launched.