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 Jing
Jing’s day of work begins with a click of the mouse. To describe
her job offers a chance to throw around geeky buzzwords such as
e-commerce, C2C (customer-to-customer) retail and SOHO (Small-Office-Home-Office).
But a better explanation might be to say that instead of getting
a “proper job” upon graduation, Jing Jing (not her real
name) started up her own little shop on the Internet. The 25-year-old
Beijinger now averages about RMB 2,500 a month selling clothes
and cosmetics. In a good month, she rakes in RMB 8,000 (about
US $1,000).
The idea came in 2003 when Jing Jing stumbled upon EachNet, an
online shopping website that was only just recently bought out
by eBay. “I was immediately mesmerized by the product variety
and the convenient service,” says Jing Jing. “I had
always believed in my taste. I thought I could give it a try and
earn myself some pocket money.”
By sending the site a copy of her identity card, Jing Jing registered
“Metro Cool Fashion” (Du Shi Ku Liu Xing). Selling clothes
in her spare time at Beijing Technology and Business University,
Jing Jing realized she was making more money than she had ever
expected. Upon graduation, Jing Jing upgraded her hobby to a fulltime
career. “My parents and friends think it’s insane to
give up a career as a journalist,” says the mass communications
major. “And I know that with a bachelor’s degree, it’s
not that hard to find a job. The thing is, I prefer a life with
more freedom. If I can make a living and at the same time be my
own boss, why should I work for a limited salary at someone else’s
beck and call?”
Jing Jing’s choice is an unusual one, but it reveals much
about a competitive job market that no longer doles out jobs-for-life
to successful graduates. Of the roughly 3.4 million graduates
in 2005, only about 73 percent managed to land jobs.
A survey of 540 Shanghai university graduates in August found
78 percent had seriously considered starting their own business.
But in the end, only 2 percent did anything about it. It’s
not hard to guess why.
In theory, the Chinese government encourages graduates to start
their own business. For instance, this year the State Council
issued “Suggestions on Leading and Encouraging College Graduates
to Look for Jobs in the Grass-roots Level Units of Society”.
This document supposedly simplifies first-time business registration
and bank loan application procedures.
In practice, “starting from scratch is easier said than
done,” says Ren Fengxian, graduate office director of the
Beijing Technology and Business University. “It’s not
at all as rosy as many students imagine when they are still on
campus. They are inclined to take too much for granted.”
On top of all the central government documentation, cities like
Beijing and Guangzhou even offer tax breaks to graduates who start
up companies. “Truth be told, despite all the favorable policies,
very few graduates are able to seize the day and attract investment,
mostly due to their lack of experience,” said Ren.
Ren says, a grand total of two graduates out of 2,843 started
up their own businesses in 2004. And Jing Jing’s idea only
worked because it exists in a kind of virtual business reality.
She didn’t need much by way of start-up capital, for example.
Jing Jing’s business began part-time and piecemeal, selling
off the clothes she no longer wanted. She built it up from there.
“I’m no business expert,” says Jing Jing. “But
I have a sense for trading. And now I have proved that’s
enough to run a little shop on the Internet.”
The rest is all economics, says Wu Yunzhong. The online marketplace
is an ideal choice for ambitious entrepreneurs with no business
background or start-up capital. “People like me!” laughs
the graduate of Central China Normal University. Wu had worked
as an intern for three months at Hubei Daily. “As a trainee,
my salary was far from satisfactory. I was away from home and
didn’t want to burden my family anymore,” he says. Instead,
he plunged all of his RMB 3,000 savings into Light Memory, a shop
selling army outfits on Taobao.com. “With Light Memory, I
made back the amount I had invested within a month, so I launched
other shops in other categories. Services on Taobao are free,
which saves me a whole lot of money.”
China’s netizen population increased 18.4 percent in a year
to 103 million in June 2005, according to a report released by
the China Internet Network Information Center. That number should
double by 2007. About 20 million people shopped online once or
more in the first half of 2005. During that time, sales added
up to RMB 10 billion.
“Given how quickly the Internet and e-commerce market is
exploding in China, it’s hard to hold back one’s impulse
to embrace the market,” says the Center’s Wang Enhai.
He believes the online marketplace has tremendous potential because
sellers and buyers are mostly computer-savvy students or recent
graduates – a generation with a taste for consumption and
a willingness to try something new.
About 40 percent of shops on the site are run full- or part-
time by young college graduates like Jing Jing and Wu Yunzhong,
according to statistics from eBay Eachnet. The auction company
in 2003 hosted an e-commerce contest in which university students
competed online for three free months selling products. Sales
hit RMB 6.81 million and the 20-year-old Hong Qiliang won the
top prize of RMB 100,000. The Shanghai University student sold
anything that came to hand at his shop: from a belt for RMB 5
to a second-hand Hewlett-Packard laptop for RMB 9,000. He amassed
RMB 82,090 in turnover to win the coveted prize.
eBay’s chief rival is Taobao.com. In October last year,
Taobao.com announced that its consumer auction site would remain
free for three more years. Alibaba.com CEO Jack Ma threw down
the gauntlet by suggesting eBay Eachnet match the Taobao.com deal.
“It’s right for this phase of China’s e-commerce
development,” Ma said, pledging to invest US $120 million
in Alibaba’s growing online community. eBay Eachnet responded
by slashing fees, but declined to meet Ma’s demand of free
e-commerce for all.
With her shops on both eBay Eachnet and Taobao.com, Jing Jing
is smiling either way. The hotter the competition, the broader
she smiles. “I enjoy the life I’m leading now,”
she says. “I’ll continue down the road I have chosen.”
And if the latest “hot trend” is tomorrow’s dotcom
bubble, Jing Jing says she won’t be bursting into tears.
“Even if it all turns out differently than how I had planned,
at least I got to do what I wanted. I’m young. I have nothing
to lose.”
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