How can the scale of platform economies empower small-scale individual businesses, and how can new digital technologies revitalize traditional industries? Zhejiang Province is actively exploring a new path for shared prosperity based on "government guidance, platform empowerment, and individual benefit." It has guided over 80 platform companies to partner with and assist 19,000 small shops, building an economic ecosystem characterized by "large enterprises leading, small shops thriving, and mutual benefit."
Laying the Policy Foundation
Zhejiang has prioritized systematic planning and policy formulation, using high-level promotion and precise measures to build a policy support system for platforms to empower individual businesses. The provincial party committee and government offices issued a three-year action plan for high-quality development of the platform economy, implementing a "platform + industry" two-way empowerment initiative around 25 key industrial clusters. By adopting a "livestreaming + leading enterprises + source factories" model to create industry exemplars, industries like Zhuji pearls and Shengzhou steamed buns have helped nearly 50,000 individual businesses increase their income.
Simultaneously, a series of policies, including 19 measures for the individual economy and 10 financial measures, have been issued to form a systematic support mechanism, clarifying the direction for "platforms empowering individuals" from the top-level design. Financial support is key to activating internal momentum. Zhejiang encourages and supports governments at all levels to establish special incentive mechanisms, using dual incentives of "incremental cultivation and quality/efficiency improvement" to shift platform companies from "passive participation" to "active investment."
Hangzhou has allocated nearly 3 million yuan for coordinating and securing work funds for individual business development and established a special fund for high-quality platform economy development projects. It explicitly identifies platform companies serving individual businesses within their ecosystems as core support targets, offering up to 100,000 yuan in financial subsidies per approved excellent platform company to incentivize greater resource investment. Fuyang District in Hangzhou, in partnership with Taobao's flash sales, launched the nation's first "Township Merchant Assistance Plan," cumulatively investing 1.881 million yuan in special subsidies, including 337,000 yuan in waived technical service fees, 1.398 million yuan in shipping subsidies, and 146,000 yuan in traffic subsidies, benefiting 1,044 takeout merchants.
To ensure policies reach individual businesses directly, a matrix of digital service platforms has been built. The Zhejiang Provincial Market Supervision Bureau launched the "Zhejiang Individual Business Service Online" platform, providing one-stop comprehensive services including legal policies, market supply/demand, recruitment, entrepreneurial training, and financial support to over 7.3 million individual businesses province-wide. The upgraded "Zhejiang Enterprise Online" platform creates accurate profiles for individual businesses, enabling personalized推送 and online applications for supportive policies like low-interest loans, having served over 90,000 individual businesses precisely.
A "Small Shop Help Group" team has been formed, appointing leading platforms and financial institutions as "group leader units," creating a "leader-led, member-progressing" geese-formation assistance model. An innovative "two-way direct access" mechanism has been established, setting up 50,000 contact points to resolve development challenges point-to-point promptly.
Building a Multi-faceted Support Matrix
Zhejiang guides platform companies to leverage their strengths and innovate assistance models, forming a batch of replicable empowerment pathways. Smart site selection helps "get off to a good start." Addressing the pain point of startups relying on luck and lacking data for site decisions, Hangzhou and Taizhou, in collaboration with Meituan, launched an "AI Site Selection" tool, generating professional reports based on商圈热度, store analysis, and customer profiles. Taizhou's "Opening Guide" uses Meituan's big data to establish a 5A-level intelligent evaluation model, serving over 12,000 entrepreneurs, saving over 80% on research time, and reducing renovation rework rates by 70%.
Yuhang District in Hangzhou launched a "Yu Xiao Bang" module, integrating Meituan's餐饮大数据, using algorithms to identify 500 popular locations in the district, attracting over 50,000 users and successfully helping Hangzhou's one-millionth individual business choose a scientific location. Digital transformation helps "small shops compete in big markets." Leveraging the province's 739 professional markets, platforms like Yiwu International Trade City and Jiaxing knitwear markets are guided to build digital platforms, enabling online-offline integration.
Chain collaboration fosters "growth on the chain." Platform companies integrate industrial chain resources, using链主企业 as anchors and digital platforms as links to build a chain empowerment system, allowing individual businesses to "grow by leveraging the chain." A footwear industry chain platform in Lucheng District, Wenzhou, integrates shoe material supply chains covering products like genuine leather, microfiber, special materials, hardware, and accessories, attracting over 2,300 individual businesses, facilitating over 200,000 orders with online transaction volume reaching 137 million yuan. Some入驻商户 saw revenue increase over 10% year-on-year.
A非遗工坊 in Ningbo relies on leading enterprises' online/offline channels to expand sales through e-commerce platforms, community group buying, and supermarket counters, bringing local products to broader markets. It has integrated 87非遗技艺 and 102 time-honored brands, helping over 80 artisans increase their average annual income by 129,600 yuan. Geographical indications help "build brand image." Focusing on bayberry market fluctuations, the provincial Market Supervision Bureau and Department of Agriculture, in partnership with Alibaba Group, launched a "Zhejiang Bayberry Trusted Purchase" zone, gathering authorized merchants for GIs like "Xianju Bayberry."
Alibaba invested dedicated resources, launching six support measures including livestreaming specials, origin tracing, bayberry testing, increased subsidies, exclusive event zones, and media co-reporting. Through dual guarantees of "platform empowerment and government supervision," consumer concerns about online purchases are alleviated, enhancing the GI brand image. During the campaign, 86 bayberry individual businesses joined the zone, with 2,082 batches undergoing quick inspection in circulation, and over 680 people receiving livestreaming training.
Precise Resource Nurturing
Zhejiang focuses on core elements like finance, logistics, traffic, and talent, promoting platform companies to精准滴灌优质资源 to individual businesses. Financial empowerment tackles "financing difficulties." Promoting the "Ten Million Entities Credit Project" and推广全线上信用融资新模式, loan approval has been shortened from 5 working days to under half an hour. Since last year, 181.8 billion yuan in loans have been intelligently assessed and disbursed in cooperation with financial institutions, benefiting 99,600 business entities.
Zhejiang Houmi Agricultural Development Co., partnering with rural commercial banks and Tailong Bank, launched special supply chain financial services, innovating a "platform transaction flow credit" model. Merchants can obtain unsecured loans based on platform transaction records, with a credit line of 1 billion yuan and flexible loan terms of 3 to 12 months. Currently, over 35 million yuan in financial services have been provided to upstream and downstream merchants. Upstream purchaser Wang Zhenyi obtained over 9 million yuan in loans累计 with platform担保, shifting from散装 procurement to direct shipment from origin, achieving monthly营业额 exceeding 1.2 million yuan.
Logistics empowerment tackles "circulation difficulties." Addressing pain points like insufficient仓储空间 and high logistics costs, innovative logistics platform empowerment models are promoted. "Warehousing and distribution integration" reduces costs and increases efficiency. Jiaojiang District in Taizhou helps e-commerce individual businesses connect with postal "smart warehousing" services. Through scientific warehouse layout design and intelligent management systems, average outbound time is压缩至15 minutes, with logistics costs reduced over 30%.
Intelligent matching optimizes运输 capacity. Zhoushan's快集运 logistics platform uses IoT and big data for intelligent vehicle-cargo matching, integrating contract, tracking, and fund flows. It has gathered 35,000 registered drivers and 30,000 individual transport vehicles, effectively reducing空载率 and operational costs. Digital supply chains directly connect supply and demand. Ningbo Guagua Agricultural Technology, based on a "two ends, one chain, one platform" model, directly connects farms with餐桌消费, creating a one-stop procurement platform for餐饮小店, covering over 200 cities nationwide.
Traffic empowerment tackles "customer acquisition difficulties." Actively guiding platforms like Taobao, Fliggy, and Douyin to increase store traffic, reduce入驻费用, and decrease抽成 for merchants. Alibaba launched a "Traffic Fuel Station" for 10,000 retail小店, increasing average visitor numbers by 60% through Taobao homepage recommendations and search weighting. Fliggy provides individual homestays with comprehensive support including traffic扶持, search ranking, content seeding, and brand promotion.
Zhuji East China International Jewelry City partnered with Douyin, offering merchants special policies like traffic coupons and technical service fee reductions. During major promotions like "618" and "Double 11," exclusive topics and traffic weighting are set. Currently, 15,000直播从业者 are active in the market, with over 8,000 daily livestreams during peak times. It successfully incubated the "Xiao Wei Shows You Pearls" account with 1.967 million粉丝 and annual sales exceeding 100 million yuan.
Talent empowerment tackles "skill improvement difficulties." The provincial Market Supervision Bureau, jointly with the Department of Human Resources and Social Security, has implemented a province-wide individual laborer skills enrichment action for three consecutive years, pioneering a physical individual business college in China, exploring a "30-minute vocational skills training circle," and creating training brands like "First Lesson Upon Market Entry" and "Zhejiang Business Forum."
A menu-style training system is built, focusing on new formats like e-commerce operations, livestream sales, and AI empowerment, having trained 629,100人次, cultivated 1,646导师 for a师资库, and held 362技能竞赛. Leading livestreaming agencies like Jiaogepengyou establish training bases and conduct e-commerce training, teaching individual businesses sales技巧 and operational methods to help products find markets.
Jack Technology Co., Ltd. conducts customized training and精准化辅导 covering quality management knowledge, industry-specific standards, and new technology applications, achieving "on-demand, batch-by-batch, full-coverage" training for over 600 suppliers, helping increase supplier qualification rates by 12 percentage points,良品率 by over 50%, and average annual profit by 48%.
From "solo endeavors" to "digital-intelligence mutual benefit," Zhejiang's practice shows that when the surging tide of the platform economy meets the resilient vitality of the individual economy, astonishing creative energy is unleashed. The 7.3 million individual businesses are the deepest底气 of Zhejiang's economy; the 850 platform companies are the sharpest利器 of Zhejiang's digital era. When the two deeply integrate and move towards each other, the future of the individual economy holds无限可能.
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