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Live streaming is now the best-paying job for fresh Chinese graduates amid a shifting economy

  • Monthly income for live-streamers in 2021 is nearly double the average salary of new graduates in China last year, according to a 58.com survey
  • China recognised live-streaming sellers as an official occupation for the first time in 2020, but the industry has faced scandals, bringing regulatory scrutiny

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Chinese network celebrity Viya Huang Wei prepares for a live-streaming session on the e-commerce platform Taobao on May 19, 2020 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province of China. Live streaming is now the best-paying job for fresh graduates in China, but for a rare few, it’s a path to online celebrity. Photo: Getty Images
For anyone fresh out of college in China, the best way to make money in 2021 is by becoming a content creator, according to online classifieds platform 58.com, in a sign that chasing online celebrity instead of traditional corporate gigs is paying off for the country’s youth.

Newly minted live-streamers and other independent online content creators, referred to as “self-media” in Chinese, have been able to earn an average monthly salary of 14,682 yuan (US$2,280) this year, according to a survey that includes recent graduates of vocational training and universities at all levels, with 64 per cent of respondents being undergraduates.

The second-highest paying occupation for new graduates this year is in design, with an average monthly salary of 9,933 yuan. It is closely followed by research and development and technology, which pay an average of 9,867 yuan and 9,845 yuan, respectively

Overall, the average monthly salary for fresh graduates this year is 8,720 yuan, up from 7,839 yuan last year and 6,423 yuan in 2019, according to the survey. Jobs related to information technology and the internet were the most popular in all three years.

Live streaming was already thriving in China before Covid-19, but when the pandemic forced millions of people to do their shopping at home, live-streaming e-commerce boomed.

Live-streaming channels on popular social networks like ByteDance’s Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, became a popular way for consumers to experience a product before buying. By October, it was the fastest-growing use of the internet in China.
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