China Focus: Beyond livestream: Can clicks become lasting careers for China's youth?

People promote local cultural tourism projects beside a cole flower field in Jiande City, east China's Zhejiang Province, March 23, 2025. (Xinhua/Xu Yu)

HANGZHOU, July 25 (Xinhua) -- When viewers ask which product best suits their needs, Ge Xinrui must translate technical specifications into language they can understand and use.

Her work does not end when the camera is switched off. The 27-year-old internet marketer studies traffic data, analyzes consumer profiles and reviews which parts of a livestream attracted attention or led to purchases.

Ge's job reflects a broader shift in China's livestreaming economy. What once appeared to revolve around online personalities and viewer traffic is developing into a more specialized employment system behind the screen.

As more young people enter the sector, however, a harder question is emerging: Can flexible, traffic-dependent work become a lasting career with professional development, stable income and adequate social protection?

The question has wider relevance as young people around the world face difficult labor markets and uncertainty over how digital platforms, AI and automation will reshape employment.

Hangzhou, one of China's most influential livestreaming e-commerce hubs, offers a test of whether rapid industry growth can be translated into sustainable careers.

This city in east China is home to 32 major multi-channel network agencies and more than 10,000 livestream-related business entities, supporting work for over 1.2 million people, according to a report released earlier this year by several municipal government departments and China Youth Daily.

Livestreaming e-commerce transactions in Hangzhou surged from less than 10 billion yuan in 2016 to 400 billion yuan, or about 59 billion U.S. dollars, in 2025.

Behind these figures is an increasingly specialized workforce.

"If livestreaming is still understood as one person talking into a camera, that no longer captures the reality of the industry," said Xiong Weilin, general manager of Zhejiang Global Netrepreneur Co., Ltd.

A single livestream may require a director to manage its pace, planners to devise a communication strategy, and a camera team to shape its visual presentation. Data analysts, advertising specialists and operations staff are also becoming part of the production process.

"The industry is moving from extensive expansion toward greater professional specialization," Xiong said. "Its production process is becoming increasingly similar to those of the film and entertainment industries."

Platform reports point to a widening employment network. Kuaishou, a leading Chinese short-video and livestreaming platform, said it had generated 48.6 million employment opportunities and fostered 189 new types of work by the end of 2025.

These include livestream product selectors, who evaluate merchandise, and data analysts, who monitor traffic and conversion rates. A separate Douyin report found that professional content creators had at least 1.5 support staff on average, working in areas such as operations, filming, editing and advertising.

Yet the expansion of work has raised another question: What kind of employment is being created?

The Hangzhou report found that income settlement, social security and the recognition of labor relations were the three issues of greatest concern to practitioners. The intense pace of work and the potential impact of AI on conventional livestreaming roles were also causing career anxiety.

These concerns go to the heart of whether livestreaming can evolve from a fast-growing source of jobs into a sustainable career system.

Such concerns extend beyond China. The International Labour Organization said the global youth unemployment rate stood at 12.4 percent in 2025 and warned that AI and automation could further intensify the challenges facing young workers.

Despite the uncertainty, livestreaming continues to attract younger and increasingly well-educated workers.

Among practitioners surveyed in Hangzhou, more than 70 percent were born in or after 1995, while 65.3 percent held a bachelor's degree or above.

Income potential, career prospects, flexible working arrangements and personal interest ranked among the main factors drawing them into the sector. Nearly 80 percent of the streamers surveyed expressed a strong sense of professional identity, while almost 70 percent of respondents said they hoped to build long-term careers in Hangzhou.

"Compared with following traditional career paths, more young people are seeking careers that offer greater individuality and a wider range of possibilities," said Fan Wei, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Personnel Science.

Many young people want greater room for creativity and a stronger sense of purpose and recognition in their work, Fan said. New occupations involving innovation and technology are particularly attractive to those with digital skills.

According to Xiong, livestreaming requires constant learning. "Workers are continually exposed to new clients, technologies and products," he said. "For young people willing to keep learning, professional growth can be rapid."

Livestreaming-related work has also gained formal recognition. Internet marketer was added to China's national catalog of new occupations in 2020, while online streamer was formally recognized as a new occupation in July 2024.

The employment impact extends beyond platforms and e-commerce companies. Livestreaming is increasingly being used in agriculture, manufacturing, tourism and other traditional sectors.

In 2019, He Jiangnan left a well-paid job and returned to rural Hangzhou to sell agricultural products through livestreaming. Villagers initially struggled to understand how a smartphone could help farming. As sales grew, however, more of them approached him to explore cooperation.

Li Xinxiang, a professor at Communication University of Zhejiang, said livestreaming should not be viewed narrowly as a standalone industry, but as a new form of production and communication used across different sectors.

Its long-term value, he said, should be judged not only by transaction volumes, audience numbers or the quantity of jobs created.

The industry must help young people grow from "traffic participants" into "value creators," Li said. That will require stronger systems for training, professional evaluation and worker protection, along with greater attention to ethics and social value.

Hangzhou has introduced measures aimed at easing some of the practical difficulties facing young people entering emerging industries.

Job seekers arriving in the city for interviews can receive up to seven days of free accommodation at city-backed youth lodgings before applying for low-cost transitional housing for up to six months. By the end of March 2026, Hangzhou had opened 97 such youth lodgings, offering young people around 240,000 stays in total.

The city also allows flexible workers to make voluntary contributions to the housing provident fund and use fund savings to pay rent, make housing down payments or repay mortgages.

Qualified livestreaming e-commerce professionals, notably, are included in Hangzhou's market-based talent evaluation system. The city has also organized training courses and industry competitions, while planning further programs focused on content creation, regulations and AI applications.

Beyond Hangzhou, national policies are beginning to address the needs of workers in emerging forms of employment. China's 2026 government work report called for improved social security policies for flexible workers. A five-year employment plan released last month also called for expanding flexible employment and promoting the healthy development of the platform economy.

China has, meanwhile, launched youth-oriented development pilots in 45 cities and 99 counties, with local measures covering employment, housing, education and entrepreneurship.

For Ge, the changing nature of livestreaming is most visible after the camera is switched off, when she analyzes traffic, studies consumer profiles and reviews the session's performance.

The future of jobs like hers will hinge on whether training, career pathways and worker protection can keep pace with the industry's growth. ■

A young creator promotes local scenery among flowers in Yuhang District of Hangzhou City, east China's Zhejiang Province, May 24, 2025. (Xinhua/Xu Yu)

A livestreamer works at Zhejiang Global Netrepreneur Co., Ltd. in Hangzhou City, east China's Zhejiang Province, May 21, 2026. (Xinhua/Zheng Keyi)