Digital professions offer more options for job seekers in China

Self-employed individuals in China have begun to move online, taking up digital professions including e-commerce operators and content creators on short video platforms and social e-commerce platforms, thanks to the application of digital technologies.

Zhang Wanlu, a vlogger, shoots footage of his grandmother in a kitchen in Zaoyuan village, Ankang city, northwest China’s Shaanxi Province. Zhang returned to his hometown to start a business, using cameras to capture his grandparents’ daily life. (Photo/Zou Jingyi)

Experts believe that the “new individual economy” brings new development opportunities, and encouraging its growth can stimulate the consumer market and boost employment.

Wang Fangwen is a content creator on Kuaishou, a Chinese short-video platform, in Zhuhai city, south China’s Guangdong Province. She is also a stay-at-home mom who likes watching short videos and baking in her leisure time.

Wang once uploaded a video of her making desserts at home on the platform, and received several thumbs-ups for it.

After putting more videos on her account on the platform and gaining an increasing number of followers, she now sells desserts that she made through the platform, after getting a business license.

Wang said it is the short video platform that made her take up a new profession in the social e-commerce sector.

According to a regulation on boosting the development of self-employed businesses, which took effect in November 2022, China will guide and support the accelerated digital transformation of services provided by self-employed businesses.

One month later, the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council issued the outline of a strategic plan for expanding domestic demand, which proposed promoting the new individual economy and supporting diversified business modes, including social e-commerce and livestreaming.

Experts say that the development of the new individual economy should be promoted in a healthy and sustainable way.

Xiao Xiao, an associate professor of the School of Marxism under Beijing Normal University, called for efforts to better protect new types of self-employed businesses as they are relatively weak, while some online platforms engage in vicious competition, disrupt market order and shirk their responsibilities.