Graduates prefer online stores to conventional jobs
By Cao Ye and Wang Jing (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-01-04 06:03

Work begins each day with a click of a mouse for 25-year-old graduate Jing Jing, an assumed name.

Her world is filled with the sort of buzzwords that send technophobes round the bend - like e-commerce, C2C (customer-to-customer) retail and SOHO - Small-Office / Home-Office.

Instead of getting a so-called proper job when she graduated, Jing Jing decided to start up a little shop on the Internet.

A student shops at a trade fair on the campus of the Beijing-based Renmin University of China. More than 40 online shop-owners, all college graduates, held the off-line fair in a bid to win customer trust by such face-to-face exchanges. [China Daily]

The Beijinger makes an average of 2,500 yuan (US$308) a month selling clothes and cosmetics, and can earn up to 8,000 yuan (US$986) when business is booming.

"My parents and many of my friends think it's insane to give up a career as a journalist," said Jing Jing, who studied mass communications.

"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?"

The idea for the cyber boutique came to Jing Jing in 2003 when she happened upon EachNet, an online shopping website that was recently bought out by eBay.

"I was immediately mesmerized by the variety and the convenient service," said the young entrepreneur.

"I had always believed in my taste. I guessed 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 time out from studying at Beijing Technology and Business University, Jing Jing realized she was making more money than she expected. Upon graduation she turned what was only a hobby into a full-time career.

Jing Jing's choice is an unusual one, but it reveals a lot about the competitive nature of the current job market, which no longer doles out jobs-for-life to successful graduates.

The number of students graduating from universities on the Chinese mainland increased by 21 per cent in 2005, according to Education Minister Zhou Ji. Of the 3.4 million students, only 73 per cent are thought to have settled in jobs.

A survey of 540 Shanghai university graduates in August found 78 per cent had seriously considered starting their own business. But in the end, only 2 per cent did anything about it. It is not hard to see why.

In theory the government encourages graduates to start their own businesses. Last year the State Council issued a special guide, "Suggestions on Leading and Encouraging College Graduates to Look for Jobs in the Grass-roots Level Units of Society." Stipulated policies simplify first-time business registration and bank loan applications.

In practice, "starting from scratch is easier said than done," according to 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 simplification, cities like Beijing and Guangzhou even offer tax breaks to graduates that launch start-up companies.

"Truth be told, despite all the favourable policies, very few graduates are able to seize the day and attract investment, mostly due to their lack of experience," said Ren.

In fact, according to Ren, only two graduates out of 2,843 started up their own businesses in 2004.

Jing Jing's idea only worked because she did not need much in the way of start-up capital. Her business began when she started selling off clothes she no longer wanted.

"I'm no business expert," said Jing Jing. "But I have common sense about trading. 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," laughed 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 said.

Instead, Wu ploughed all of his 3,000-yuan (US$370) savings into Light Memory a shop selling army surplus on Taobao.com.

"With Light Memory, I made back the amount I had invested in almost a month and so I launched other shops in other categories. Services on Taobao are free, which saves me a whole lot of money."

The number of Internet surfers in China rose by 18.4 per cent in a year to 103 million in June last year, according to a July 21 report released by the China Internet Network Information Centre. That number is forecast to double by 2007.

About 20 million people shopped online once or more in the first half of 2005. During that time, sales totalled 10 billion yuan (US$1.23 billion). But here is the figure everyone is talking about: the total has increased by 9.9 billion yuan (US$1.22 billion) in two years.

"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," said Wang Enhai from the information centre.

He believes the online marketplace has tremendous potential because buyers and sellers are mostly computer-savvy students or recent graduates a generation with a taste for consumption and a willingness to try something new.

About 40 per cent of shops on the site are run part or full-time by young college graduates like Jing Jing and Wu Yunzhong, according to statistics from eBay EachNet.

In 2003, the auction company hosted an e-commerce contest in which university students competed online for three months of selling products for free. Sales hit 6.81 million yuan (US$839,700) and Hong Qiliang, 20, won the 100,000-yuan (US$12,330) top prize.

The Shanghai University student sold anything that came to hand at his shop, from a belt for 5 yuan (61 US cents) to a second-hand Hewlett-Packard laptop for 9,000 yuan (US$1,109). He amassed turnover of more than 82,090 yuan (US$10,122) to win the coveted prize.

EBay's chief rival Taobao.com announced last October that its consumer auction site would stay free for three more years.

Alibaba.com Chief Executive Officer 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 laughing all the way to the bank whatever happens. The hotter the competition, the broader her smile.

"I enjoy the life I'm leading now," she said. "I'll continue to go down the road I have chosen."

If the latest trend is tomorrow's dot.com bubble, Jing Jing says she will not be bursting into tears.

"Even if it all turns out differently from how I had planned, at least I got to do what I wanted. I'm young I have nothing to lose."

(China Daily 01/04/2006 page5)