BEIJING — As many people across China have reduced outdoor activity and stayed indoors to curb the spread of the epidemic during the past month, emerging business modes have been developing in various industries to meet people's needs. Here are the latest developments:
— Real estate agents have set up online sales offices and resorted to livestreaming to attract consumers. Evergrande has developed an app called Hengfangtong, providing one-stop services from showcasing houses through virtual reality (VR) technology to signing contracts. It has listed all its properties for sale on the app since Feb 13.
— China's largest online travel agency Trip.com facilitated cloud tourism of over 3,000 tourist attractions in 832 cities of 48 countries in the world.
— Many museums and galleries have launched or repackaged various online exhibitions to provide a satisfactory touring experience for the country's vast number of stay-at-home visitors. In Southwest China's Chongqing municipality, the Chongqing China Three Gorges Museum and the Chongqing Natural History Museum were among those bringing their exhibitions online.
— The school closure amid the epidemic outbreak has not stopped Chinese students from learning as they turn to the Internet to attend classes, bolstering the rise of e-learning.
Over 20 online education agencies have rolled out free courses for students since the epidemic outbreak. Xueersi, one of the agencies, said student numbers surged on Feb 1 when it launched free courses online, with an average of over 2 million viewers at each class.
— Alibaba's communication app DingTalk said it has served 200 million staff workers from more than 10 million enterprises and organizations as of Feb 3.
— Internet companies such as NetEase recently opened a full chain of contactless recruitment through online resume submission and online interviews. The candidates can also sign contracts, attend training workshops and even begin work over the Internet.
— Alibaba's Freshhema, a fresh food retailer that offers delivery services, came up with the idea of "sharing employees" with restaurants and ride-sharing firms that face sluggish markets as more people are staying at home and choosing online shopping amid the novel coronavirus outbreak.
As of Feb 10, over 1,800 workers have started their new, short-term jobs as deliverymen with Freshhema. Among their "previous" employers are 32 catering firms, ride-sharing companies, shopping malls, hotels and cinemas that are facing a sharp downturn in clients.
— Kuaishou, a popular short-video sharing platform, said in its latest report that its daily active users exceeded 300 million in early 2020. People livestream whatever they do at home from cooking and cosplay to cutting hair and working out.