Icons, celebrities, pacemakers ... what a difference they make to biz!

When you think of prominent platform companies like Tencent, Baidu and Alibaba, what, or who, pops up first in your mind? Email me your answer, if you will; here and now, let me share my answer: it's their founders such as Pony Ma, Robin Li and Jack Ma.

As I see it, developing platforms is no mean feat, especially when you face odds like persistent economic uncertainties. In certain contexts, it becomes imperative to encourage some "critical minorities"－Chinese entrepreneurs and internet celebrities who have been at the forefront of the global technological and online innovations.

Over the past few decades, it is their insight, courage and persistence that revolutionized China's platform economy, which galloped at unprecedentedly high speed. Market consultancy Deloitte is confident that China's platform economy may reach an astonishing market size (100 trillion yuan or $14.87 trillion in annual sales revenue) by 2030.

China has already surpassed many foreign countries in terms of platform-based innovations from ordering food online to short-video platforms. This is a contrast to the situation decades ago when the country was a follower of then market leaders.

There is no gainsaying that Chinese entrepreneurs and their inventions have greatly influenced work and lives of people around the globe. Some of these entrepreneurs have become icons for the younger generation.

It's amazing that a few individuals can make such an enormous difference. Dong Yuhui, 29, a former English teacher who took to livestreaming on New Oriental Education and Technology Group, is one such pacemaker.

His unique style of using the talk show format for imparting free English courses, and then mixing it up with e-commerce via livestreaming, notched up 20 million followers in a very short time. His patrons range from celebrities to commoners. All of them began dancing to Dong's tune in just 20 days.

While the average daily turnover of the top 50 livestreamers during this year's 618 shopping gala in June was 18 million yuan, Dongarmed Oriental Selection, the livestreaming arm of New Oriental, raked in 69.85 million yuan a day on average during the peak of the multiday festival.

Thanks to Dong's effectiveness, shares of Koolearn, the parent company of the livestreaming body, surged significantly since the beginning of June.

But it'd be a folly to credit Dong alone for the company's glad tidings. The persistence of New Oriental founder Yu Minhong is no less a factor. Yu insisted on diversifying the company's business into e-commerce via livestreaming after facing a hard time due to tighter regulation of the entire online learning sector last year.

"The more our business was driven into a corner pushing us all to desperation, the more patience we displayed," Yu said on a livestream last week.

In this context, stakeholders of the recovering platform economy can take heart from exceptional individuals such as Dong and Yu. The latter embody a certain spirit that could inspire millions of people to overcome the seemingly insurmountable odds created by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy.

The platform economy came under intense scrutiny due to some errant players' monopolistic behavior and data privacy concerns related to national security.

But now, all that seems a distant memory. The platform economy is regaining health. Encouragement for potential icons and other exceptional individuals can help drive business expansion and innovation, both of which are critical to China's economic growth.