The rise of she-commerce: Chinese women rock the trend as online entrepreneurs
The number of women running online businesses is growing, they’re getting younger and are venturing into sectors once dominated by men
Women entrepreneurs are edging out their male counterparts in the mainland’s booming online shopping industry, according to an industry report.
Figures from Taobao, one of the largest online shopping platforms, showed that 50.1 per cent of its online shops were started by women, according to the “Women Entrepreneurs Report” published by Taobao’s owner, Hangzhou-based Alibaba Group on Thursday.
Alibaba had 8.5 million active online shops in its Taobao, Tmall and Juhuasuan platforms as of June last year, according to its IPO prospectus last year.
The figure highlights a stark contrast with 67 other traditional industries, in which women entrepreneurs on average only account for 3.6 per cent of participants, the report shows.
The report also said that women entrepreneurs were moving away from industries traditionally associated with women, such as garments and beauty products, into sectors dominated by men such as digital products and furniture.
The report comes amid recent calls by Chinese leaders to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in an attempt to reverse an economic slowdown.
The report also found that women from the northeastern provinces, Sichuan, Chongqing, Hong Kong and Taiwan were more likely to start their own business than those from the three major cities Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.