# gig economy
Latest news and articles about gig economy
Total: 12 articles found
Meituan Rebuts Viral “Peking University Grad Delivering Food” Clip, Urges Caution Over Credential Clickbait
Meituan has disputed a viral clip claiming a Peking University graduate was working as a food-delivery rider, saying platform records show only a brief registration and five deliveries. The company warned against using academic labels for clicks and noted it lacks mechanisms to verify riders’ education, highlighting tensions between credential narratives and the realities of China’s large gig-economy workforce.
China’s Livestreaming Boom Deflates: From Hangzhou’s Tower of Stars to a Nation-wide Reset
China’s livestreaming industry is undergoing a broad correction: rents and anchor incomes have plunged in hubs like Hangzhou even as the national ecosystem remains large. Oversupply, weaker consumer spending, rising complaints and tighter regulation are forcing a shift from spectacle-driven growth to a trust‑and‑quality‑focused model.
Beijing’s Balancing Act: Gig‑Worker Protections, State Landlords Cut Rents and a Spike in Oil Prices Roil Markets
China is implementing targeted measures to broaden protections for a 240 million plus flexible workforce while state landlords cut rents to stabilise occupancy and attract talent. Regulatory tightening on food safety, provincial industrial cluster upgrades and a sudden oil price spike are adding policy and market pressures, even as tech firms vie for AI talent and tussle over open‑source code.
The High Cost of “Keeping a Dragon‑Lobster”: Why OpenClaw’s Hype Collides With Time, Money and Security
OpenClaw, a popular orchestration platform for personal AI agents in China, has attracted huge user interest but also revealed a hard truth: time, expense and security risks often outweigh potential earnings for ordinary users. Startups and technically skilled operators can monetise deployments, but non‑technical users face maintenance burdens, electricity and token costs, and vulnerabilities from unvetted plugins and exposed instances.
From Campus Side‑hustles to Queues Outside Tencent: How an Open‑Source AI Agent Spawned a New Service Economy — and New Risks
OpenClaw, an open‑source local AI agent, has triggered a boom in paid installation services from student side‑hustles to professional remote deployments, and even free public install events by major tech firms. The phenomenon highlights rapid consumer uptake of autonomous agents and exposes practical and security challenges around local deployment, third‑party installers and accountability.
Driverless, With Help: Waymo Pays Delivery Couriers to Close Car Doors in Atlanta
Waymo has begun paying DoorDash couriers in Atlanta to close car doors when passengers leave them ajar, a pragmatic fix for an operational snag that prevents autonomous vehicles from resuming service. The pilot highlights the persistent need for human intervention in advanced automation and raises questions about liability, labor and the pace of engineering solutions.
Hired by an Algorithm, Paid by Nobody: Inside the RentAHuman Experiment
A platform called RentAHuman that promised AI agents could autonomously hire humans for real‑world tasks drew millions of visitors but failed to deliver paid work in a Wired reporter’s test. The service functions more as a marketing engine and a proof‑of‑concept for treating people as callable infrastructure, exposing unresolved questions about payments, liability and the dignity of labour in an AI‑driven economy.
Paying for Piety: UU Delivery Withdraws '999‑Yuan Kowtow' Service After Ethics Outcry
A Chinese delivery app, UU Paotui, briefly offered a 999‑yuan service in which riders would perform three kowtows on behalf of customers, provoking public outrage and rapid removal. The incident highlights the commercialisation of intimate, symbolic labour in the gig economy and the reputational and regulatory risks that follow when platforms monetise cultural practices.
Chinese Errand App Pulls 'Proxy New‑Year Visit' After Outcry, Offers Triple Refunds and Charity Drive
UU Paotui removed a contested “proxy New‑Year visit” service after social‑media backlash, pledged triple refunds for unfulfilled orders and launched a charity campaign to mend its image. The incident underscores the cultural sensitivity and reputational risks Chinese platforms face when monetising intimate, ritualised services.
China’s Market Pulse: From tighter gig-economy rules to ByteDance’s Seedream 5.0 and local stimulus for homebuyers
Chinese authorities moved to strengthen protections for gig workers and to regulate opaque consumer products, while local governments and firms deployed incentives and product launches to sustain demand. ByteDance rolled out Seedream 5.0 in a bid to deepen its AI creative stack as markets reacted with sectoral rotation and holiday cost pressures surfaced in retail logistics.
China Raises VAT Per‑Sale Threshold to 1,000 Yuan, Extends Relief to Small Businesses
China will raise the VAT per‑transaction threshold to 1,000 yuan from January 2026 and extend formal VAT threshold relief to registered small‑scale taxpayers (annual sales ≤5 million yuan). The rules preserve higher monthly/quarterly thresholds for periodic filers, carve out exceptions for sustained commercial activities, and strengthen withholding obligations for payers.
China’s Long Workweek Stalls After Nine Years — But Overwork, Low Wages and Underemployment Linger
Average weekly working hours for enterprise employees in China fell in 2025 after nine years of increases, a shift driven by limits to hours, growing anti‑overtime sentiment and better enforcement. Yet entrenched overwork among many and rising underemployment among others, combined with low hourly wages and higher employer social insurance costs, point to persistent structural problems that simple declines in hours will not solve.