Exclusive | Ctrip chairman James Liang backs start-up that helps parents find play dates for their young ones

James Liang Jianzhang is best known in Chinese business circles as the chairman of Ctrip, the country’s biggest online travel agent. But that is only one of the many hats he wears. The 50-year-old is also a passionate advocate for women’s rights and expert on population studies. Faced with a rapidly ageing society, Liang is putting his money where his mouth is, by co-founding a start-up aimed at helping more Chinese mothers with child rearing. The start-up, called Moremom, is a location-based app that helps parents find nearby play dates for their children, but also allow those hosting the play dates, mostly mums, to make some small profit. With dual-income families the norm in China, most women face pressure from both the workplace and at home after becoming mothers. The difficulty and the cost of finding a reliable caretaker is among the key reasons deterring women from having more babies, a demographic trend that has tremendous ramifications for China’s ability to transform its economy into one driven by consumption. China puts an end to its notorious one-child policy enforcer China’s ageing society problem appears to be worsening, with the latest official statistics revealing that both its birth and marriage rates have dropped significantly. The country is facing huge challenges with its new births in decline and a quarter of the population expected to be aged over 60 by 2030, according to a cabinet plan. Its rapidly ageing population pushed Beijing to end the notorious one-child policy – introduced in 1979 to control population growth – in 2016, and couples can now have two children. Still, the birth rate fell to 12.43 births per thousand people last year – down from a record high of 12.95 in 2016. “One of the top challenges for China’s economic growth and innovation lies in its population,” Liang said in a recent interview. “We want to try everything to lower the cost of raising children in China.” Baby-goods businesses not booming despite loosening of China’s one-child policy Liang hopes that Moremom, which is exploring a community-based children-raising solution by tapping into the collective parenting skills of all mums, both stay-at-home and working, can increase efficiency and lower the cost of raising kids in China, which can eventually help boost the birth rate in China if successful. The app, now in public testing since its launch last year, allows mums to upload playdate activities online, from painting, reading picture books to baking biscuit. They can charge a fee, which is usually less than 100 yuan for each child, a lower price than for-profit early childhood development centres. “The model of Moremom is indeed a sharing economy model as it allows the sharing of time, venue and know-how,” said Yao Na, co-founder and chief executive of Moremom and a mom of a 18-month-old boy. “With our model, a mom can take care of three to four neighbourhood kids while taking care of her own kid at the same time in her own living room.” Easing of one-child policy causing friction within Chinese families According to her, mums on her platform are usually already an expert on their individual fields, some are good at painting, some are good at English and know how to communicate with kids. On safety and trust, children who take part in the play dates are accompanied by their family members such as grandparents or nannies. The company is open to trying out a drop-off service to free up parents if regulation allows. Moremom has signed up about 10,000 mothers who host play dates and up to 50,000 parents have let their children take part during the month-long trial. One stay-at-home mom in Beijing made 25,000 yuan from hosting play dates. The app is targeting to officially launch its services in the spring of this year. The company is aiming to sign up one million hosts to serve five million families. The app is free to use and the founding team has no intention at present to charge any fee to match play date hosts with guests. How Ctrip CEO's career 'is a reflection of China’s 40 years of development and opening up’ “Women in China have to sacrifice a lot, putting their careers on hold for at least two years to have babies if they do not have enough support from within the family, not to mention the rising cost of raising children in China,” Liang said. Liang has led various female-friendly initiatives at Ctrip. The company reimburses female executives for freezing their eggs so they have the choice of delaying childbirth till their 30s or 40s. Another company policy encourages working mothers who are breastfeeding to bring their babies on business trips.

.css-sioo19{color:#c79a00;}Exclusive | Ctrip chairman James Liang backs start-up that helps parents find play dates for their young ones

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}Moremom aims to help ease the pressures of child-rearing in China with app that matches play dates

Exclusive | Ctrip chairman James Liang backs start-up that helps parents find play dates for their young ones

Moremom aims to help ease the pressures of child-rearing in China with app that matches play dates