In January 2021 the International Labour Organization (ILO) published Working Paper 24 entitled: Online digital labour platforms in China - Working conditions, policy issues and prospects. This reports provides an overview of current online platform usage in China based on a vast survey conducted in 2019 of 1,071 self-employed workers who were using the three largest operators in the online platform sector, namely ZBJ (Chongqing/ southwest China), EPWK (Xiamen/southeast China) and 680 (originally based in Chengdu/southwest China). These platforms were selected because they offer a wide range of jobs, from the most skilled (IT, design, video production, publishing, writing and online education) to the least skilled (sales, promotion, customer support, survey completion, administrative support tasks and ‘manual work’ related to online orders). Divided into five sections, this report first documents the rise of e-commerce and digital platforms in China. It then provides a detailed description of the methodology underpinning the 2019 survey. The report goes on to detail the survey’s findings including socio-demographic data and feedback. Section four of the report discusses issues facing digital platforms and reflects on their future development. The report concludes on the need for institutional reforms and suggests possible avenues for the implementation of new platform regulations.
Situational disparities. Based on approximately 85 questions, the survey provides a comprehensive profile of the workers using the three platforms (see above). Relatively young, (25-27 years old) these workers are highly educated and more than half have attended university. While nearly 80% receive most of their income outside these platforms, more than a quarter view them as an income top-up and a fifth also said they did this form of work for fun. Although the jobs being undertaken are varied
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