Kuaishou, rival of Chinese TikTok, or Douyin, is prioritising finding more talent from the next generation and steering them towards live streaming by introducing the Super New Generation program. The scheme is dedicated to training students aged 18 and above through to young adults who graduated from university within the last two years, ultimately enabling them to build their careers through producing short videos and live streaming.
The video-sharing platform is reported to have promised cash incentives and online traffic support, as well as structured live stream training and further development courses for participants throughout the year. Meanwhile, it will also team up with institutions from other industries, broadening career opportunities for the young generations while also further leveraging the synergy of live streaming and other sectors.
The move by Kuaishou has signalled the growing significance of short videos and live streaming in China’s economic recovery post-pandemic. Live streaming sellers were officially recognised as one of ten new professions by China’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security in 2020. The decision saw further consolidation the year after with standards set for live stream salespersons which was announced by the authorities.
While the real economy was hampered by the global health crisis, China’s years of stringent COVID protocols further obstructed its growth, resulting in the second-lowest GDP performance in 50 years in 2022 at 3%. The country’s economic downturn naturally took a toll on the domestic employment market, with recent graduates sharing the pain of struggling to enter the job market.
It is reported that China’s youth unemployment rate had risen to another record of 19.9% as of last July, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. In contrast, the scale of fresh graduates in China is believed to reach 11.58 million in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 820,000, according to the Ministry of Education.
Amid the worsening dilemma in China’s job market, Kuaishou’s initiative, therefore, is expected to turn around the occurrence. In the meantime, the step is also in line with the government’s overall push for development in e-commerce and live stream as part of its efforts in accelerating industrial digitalisation, as well as endeavouring to pull off the forecasted GDP growth of 5% in 2023 in its economic reboot.
This is coupled with the fact that the number of short video users in China hit an all-time high at one billion as of the end of last year, as per the China Internet Network Information Centre on 3 March. The strong user growth has made the digital landscape a more lucrative space. As a result, several cities with a GDP of over one trillion RMB, such as Chongqing, Nanjing, and Wuxi, have stepped up to unleash their digital potential by signposting e-commerce and live stream as one of the core engines in driving local economic recovery.
