Xie Xing (left) and his mother are livestreaming to sell products. (Photo/Xie Xing)
Chongqing - "This Wogan mandarin is very sweet, with no sourness at all, and it's full of juice when you eat it. For those who like this flavor, you can place an order from the shopping cart in the bottom right corner..." Every evening at 8:30, livestreamer Xie Xing and his mother will be online in their livestream session to promote products.
As a person with a physical disability, Xie has been working in livestream e-commerce for five years. Starting as an e-commerce livestreamer, he has now registered Chongqing Xinwang New Media Development Co Ltd with the help of the Chongqing Disabled Persons Entrepreneurship Incubation Base.
In 2022, Chongqing launched a three-year action plan to promote employment for people with disabilities. This initiative has helped people with disabilities, like Xie Xing, to start businesses and find employment.
By 2024, the action plan has come to a close. Improving employment support policies and increasing assistance efforts has ensured better protection of the employment rights of people with disabilities and paved a solid path for their entrepreneurship and employment. The city has seen an increase of 33,000 new jobs for people with disabilities.
Solving entrepreneurial challenges
Xie Xing, 37 years old this year, was born into an ordinary farming family in Jiulongpo District's Zouma Town. At the age of 7, he was diagnosed with progressive muscular dystrophy, a condition that causes progressive muscle weakness and atrophy, leading to limited physical mobility. He now requires a safety belt to stay securely in a specially designed-wheelchair.
Xie has tried various flexible employment methods, such as running street stalls, opening a business to provide internet access, and streaming games.
In 2020, he seized the opportunity in the short video industry and began livestreaming to sell products. His family once ran a fruit orchard, so Xie was familiar with fruit products from a young age. He personally selected products for his livestreams, livestreaming for over three hours a day for four consecutive months. His sales in the livestream room averaged 100,000 yuan ($13,688.1) per month, and at the best times, it reached 200,000 yuan. This gave Xie hope and boosted his confidence.
However, the path of livestreaming as a disabled person was not easy. Xie explained that, on the one hand, the long hours of livestreaming took a toll on his body. On the other hand, he lacked professional skills in areas like video planning, shooting, editing, product selection for livestreams, and marketing, all of which he needed to learn and implement. Due to his physical limitations, he could not complete short video production or long livestream sessions on his own, and most of the work was done with help from his family.
In October 2022, with the assistance of the Chongqing Disabled Persons Entrepreneurship Incubation Base, Xie registered Chongqing Xinwang New Media Development Co Ltd. The company primarily focuses on e-commerce livestreaming, supply chain services, and influencer training. It mainly sells fresh fruits, food, and daily necessities, with the supply chain services focused on fresh produce, agricultural products, and food.
The base not only helped Xie with essential services like business registration, logo design, trademark registration, and marketing but also provided consultation on tax, legal matters, and other areas, solving many of the challenges he faced during the initial stages of his entrepreneurship.
Soon, Xie's company connected with partners and gained various entrepreneurial resources, allowing the business to run efficiently. Its project has achieved "100,000+" in sales, "500,000+" followers on social media platforms, and a total sales revenue of 4.5 million yuan.
Since 2022, the incubation base has hosted 58 companies, 45 of which are still in operation. The base employs 378 staff members, including 152 people with disabilities. It has also provided 452 instances of flexible employment for disabled individuals. Additionally, the base has organized 112 events, including project diagnostics, resource connections, livestream cloud expos, and e-commerce livestreaming activities.
Building platforms for job matching
On the morning of February 8, 29-year-old disabled young man Yang Xu sat in front of a computer at the Chongqing Disabled Persons Entrepreneurship Incubation Base in Yuzhong District, typing on the keyboard to maintain the digital system of a website.
Last year, Yang obtained a master's degree in Computer Science and Technology from Chongqing University of Technology and entered the job market, but he struggled to find a suitable position. In July, he successfully found a job with the help of the Zhiyouai digital employment service platform.
The "Zhiyouai" platform was jointly developed by Chongqing City Disabled Persons' Federation and China Mobile Group Chongqing Company. It aims to provide a job service platform that actively matches job seekers with disabilities and employers. The platform now has over 10,000 users, with an average of around 170 new users joining each month, and user activity continues to rise.
Broaden employment opportunities
In addition to building platforms, the Chongqing City Disabled Persons' Federation has also collaborated with other departments to organize public employment service events. At the job fairs, job seekers could engage with company representatives.
A person with a physical disability surnamed Xu said, "I've been employed for two weeks now, working in product inspection. The company provides three meals a day and accommodation. The probation period is one month, and I'm very satisfied with this job." By participating in a job fair, people with disabilities like Xu have found satisfactory jobs.
Over the past three years, nearly 10,000 recruitment events have been held across the city, with an average of more than 300 job positions announced at each event. This has streamlined the job-matching process for people with disabilities and provided them with a wealth of employment opportunities.
One of the challenges faced by people with disabilities in the job market is limited labor skills. In response, Chongqing has provided targeted and systematic skills training, customizing the teaching content and training methods based on the physical conditions and actual needs of the disabled job-seeking group. This helps individuals acquire specialized skills and enhance their competitiveness in the workforce.
The city has established 17 national-level vocational training bases for people with disabilities. Over the past three years, the city-level vocational training has held 19 sessions, training 620 people with disabilities.
(Yang Nizi, a reporter from Chongqing Daily, contributed the Chinese version of this report.)