‘Running men’ in increasing demand
Print Edition
WEI Zhiguo, a migrant worker in Zhengzhou, capital of central China’s Henan Province, is a “running man.”
At 7am every day, the 39-year-old gets on his e-bike, attaches his smartphone, opens an app and accepts his first order. On busy days, he can work until after midnight.
Every order may contain several different tasks. Wei has been paid to queue for hospital registration, buy lottery tickets or groceries and even walk dogs.
He can complete 10 to 20 orders a day, earning a monthly salary of up to 10,000 yuan (US$1,504).
Ma Yongxi, dressed in a black suit and carrying a black briefcase, is a “black man” errand runner, responsible for the delivery of important documents and expensive goods, such as electronics or jewelry.
Both men work for the same company, UU Runner, which employs 400,000 such “running men.”
Customers can place an order and specify the errands they need done on UU Runner’s website or app. A registered “running man” then accepts the order and runs the errands.
Many Chinese are increasingly willing to pay for services, said Qiao Songtao, 36, the company’s founder.
Following its launch in Zhengzhou, it received financing of over 200 million yuan (US$30 million) and now provides service in 85 cities across China.
Companies such as UU Runner have created many full and part-time jobs, having a significant impact in Henan, which has a population of more than 100 million, said Wang Sixi, a professor with Communication University of China in Beijing.
The development of UU Runner mirrors the development of China’s sharing economy, which saw a trade volume of 3.45 trillion yuan in 2016, according to a report released in March by the Sharing Economy Research Center under the State Information Center.
A total of 600 million people were involved in the industry in 2016, up 100 million from the previous year, the report said.
It predicted that China’s sharing economy will grow at an average annual rate of 40 percent over the next few years to account for more than 10 percent of the country’s GDP by 2020.
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