‘Apply for Guinness World Record now’: teen’s claim to be boss of tech company in China with 6 workers amuses social media with many asking for a job
- A teenage secondary school boy in China stuns his teacher in a viral video by revealing he owns and runs a company
- The boy surprises her further when he adds that he has around 6 people working for his IT firm as paid employees
A video of a teacher in China hearing a 13-year-old in her class say he owns a company has trended on mainland social media but also raised questions as children under 18 cannot legally run a company on the mainland.
The viral video was posted on Douyin by a secondary school teacher from southwestern China’s Chongqing municipality and showed her assigning a homework exercise asking students to write a summary on a classmate they see as accomplished and successful.
However, the teacher was surprised when some students chose a classmate they said already runs a company, Red Star News reported.
The teacher, surnamed Bai, asked her students in the video: “I heard that one of you is a boss who owns a company. Who is that?”
All the students turned to look at a teenage boy wearing glasses and a facial mask.
“It’s you, Boss Chen,” the teacher told the boy. “What kind of business is your company engaged in?”
“Internet technology,” replied the boy, who added that his company has five to six employees.
The boy said yes when Bai asked him if he paid his workers.
“How outstanding you are!” Bai said.
The story did not reveal the background of how the teenager came to run a company with paid staff while still attending middle school.
Many internet users were charmed by Bai’s video, which has been viewed 26 million times on Weibo and 10 million times on Douyin.
“He can apply for the Guinness World Record now as the world’s youngest boss,” one person joked.
“When his customer asks his employees, ‘Where is your boss?’, his employees must reply, ‘He will come after school is over at 5pm’,” commented one person.
Another online commenter said: “This boss looks kind. I am wondering if his company has any vacancies as I’d like to apply for a job there.”
The video has also caused controversy in China, where the legal head of a business must be at least 18 years old.
The school where this student studies told the Red Star News that it is investigating the boy’s claim.
“He is definitely not the legal head of a company, and it’s impossible for him to be that. We are still trying to get more details,” a school spokesperson said.
Local mainland media have recently reported on several university students who started their own businesses in their spare time.
In March, a PhD student in southwestern China revealed online that he had earned more than 1 million yuan (US$144,000) selling snacks, used books and farm products during his four-year undergraduate degree study.
