Alibaba local services arm to add 15% more frontline staff

Ele.me and Koubei, a leading local services company of Chinese tech titan Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, said it plans this year to add 15 percent more frontline employees, which are mainly concentrated on product technology, merchant services and business operations, as part of a broader push to drive forward the digitalization of the local services industry.

Wang Lei, president of Alibaba's local services company, said the new services, which centered on digitalization, are creating more and more jobs and boosting the upgrading of the traditional service industry.

China's on-demand food delivery and services platforms are playing a vital role in solving the employment issue amid slowing economic growth.

A batch of new jobs, such as deliverymen, food delivery planner, craftsman host and operation analyst, have been created, according to the company. Moreover, 56 percent of the deliverymen have a second occupation.

The Chinese government attaches great importance to the issue of employment, and takes employment as the first priority in the task of improving people's livelihoods and ensuring the stability of society.

Figures from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security show the services industry has been growing rapidly over the past five years, with the sector accounting for 46 percent of total employment in 2018, up from 40.6 percent in 2014.

Alibaba formed its local services company in 2018 by merging food delivery platform Ele.me and lifestyle services firm Koubei. The move intensified a battle with rival Meituan Dianping, which is backed by Tencent Holdings Ltd, in China's fiercely competitive on-demand services market.