PDD seeks bigger role in employment market

Chinese online discounter PDD Holdings has provided a large number of job opportunities for the traditional labor force and expanded the employment space for disadvantaged groups while playing a vital role in rural vitalization and community development, a report said.

Industry experts said internet platforms, as carriers of new employment forms, connect millions of small, medium and micro enterprises with numerous workers, and their development is closely related to employment and people's livelihoods.

According to a report released by the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, at present, the number of merchants on the Pinduoduo platform is about 14.2 million, and the platform has provided direct employment opportunities to approximately 18.6 million people.

According to the report, Pinduoduo has cumulatively created 55.32 million jobs in China in four aspects — direct employment driven by merchants, employment in warehousing, distribution and logistics, employment of platform staff and indirect employment.

The report said e-commerce platforms have not only created abundant employment opportunities in rural vitalization and community development, but also promoted the realization of inclusive employment. They are crucial for improving the quality of people's lives, and laying a solid foundation for ensuring social fairness and stability.

Pinduoduo recently rolled out plans to invest more than 100 billion yuan ($13.9 billion) over the next three years in transforming and upgrading platform merchants and establishing a high-quality e-commerce ecosystem.

The initiative includes giving full play to the role of platform enterprises in stabilizing employment and promoting economic growth, bolstering the upgrade of merchants in industrial belts and agriculture, while supporting small and medium-sized merchants in starting businesses, and achieving win-win results among users, merchants and platforms.

As a leading domestic online marketplace for agricultural products, Pinduoduo has helped more than 300,000 new farmers to return to their hometowns to start businesses so far, and over 20 million agricultural producers to participate in the digital economy.

Xie Ruiling, a mother of two children, is a beneficiary of this inclusive employment model. She lives in Ganjiang village of Tianshui, Gansu province, famed for its ruby-like Huaniu apples.

Xie said in the past, she could only do some odd jobs to supplement the family income, which was very unstable. The turning point was in 2019 when Zhang Pengfei, a native of Tianshui, returned to his hometown and opened a fresh food store on Pinduoduo.

The sales of Huaniu apples at Zhang's online store have seen rapid growth, which propelled the construction of warehousing and cold chain facilities, and created many job opportunities for local villagers.

Zhang established a warehouse for storing fresh produce, and Xie has been recruited and is in charge of packaging apples. Zhang's warehouse has provided employment to more than 10 women like Xie, who all now have stable incomes.

Moreover, Duoduo Maicai, which was introduced by Pinduoduo in 2020 in response to surging demand for purchasing vegetables, fruits and other daily necessities online amid the COVID-19 pandemic, has helped many people find new jobs.

The report stated that the selfpickup stations run by couples, as a key part of Duoduo Maicai's warehousing and logistics system, could provide about 2 million flexible employment opportunities, and the various links, such as fresh food sorting, weighing, packaging and delivery, have created about 500,000 job positions.

"The rise of e-commerce platforms has enabled innovative technologies to have an influence on a broader population at an unprecedented speed. The 'industry plus internet' model has created employment opportunities for tens of millions of people engaged in industry, agriculture and services," said Liu Xiaochun, an associate professor at the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

It has offered a large number of jobs for disadvantaged groups such as women and the elderly, demonstrating the inclusiveness of this model, Liu said.

The platform economy represented by Pinduoduo, Liu added, has demonstrated great potential in resource allocation and industrial synergy and integration, and played a significant role in promoting high-quality economic development.

By lowering entry thresholds and operating costs, e-commerce platforms have not only attracted a large number of individual merchants to register and provided them with broad development opportunities, but also driven employment related to online stores, Liu said.