The Impact of WeChat on China’s Employment and Daily Consumption
In March 2019, WeChat, Xintong Institute and Digital China Research Center jointly released WeChat Employment Impact Report.
The report mentioned that WeChat had created a total of 22.35 million jobs in 2018. For some vertical apps, it is possible to be a leading position in one industry with 20 million active users.
Along with the popularity of WeChat apps, many job opportunities have appeared, including small program operations, development, design and so on. In the whole year of 2018 only, the WeChat apps has boosted 700,000 direct jobs and 1.82 million jobs totally.
Employment is the vane of economic development, and industrial innovation is an important manifestation of economic vitality. According to the report, as a representative of the digital economy, WeChat boosted the consumption of information by RMB 240.2 billion. Since 2014, the average annual growth rate has exceeded 26%, accounting for 4.8% of China’s total information consumption during the same period. It has driven traffic consumption of RMB 210.8 billion, 2.4 times that of 2014. In 2018, WeChat boosted traditional consumption by RMB 419.8 billion, a year-on-year increase, up to 26%.
In the shopping retail section, users use WeChat to pay up to 79%, and 45% of WeChat payment merchants are distributed in rural areas. In the past two years, WeChat has driven the growth rate of traditional consumption by more than 20%. While stimulating the consumption potential of users, it has promoted the upgrading of public service intelligence, and at the same time deep integration with various industries such as manufacturing, catering, transportation, and finance to assist in industrial transformation and upgrading.
The growth of WeChat is attributed to the development of the times, and it also feeds its own platform, technology and capabilities to society, economy and industry. It provides an important development platform for the new Internet economy by providing employment opportunities, improving service efficiency and assisting industrial transformation.
“WeChat is a way of life.” Just like its slogan, today’s WeChat is no longer a simple mobile app or tool, more like a necessity in modern life.