China pins growth hopes on consumption, service

After eight years of loss, Zhubajie.com, China's largest crowdsourcing platform, is expected to turn profitable this year.

"The 'spring' of the service trade is coming with a booming private sector, high Internet penetration and increasing per capita GDP," said Zhu Mingyue, CEO of Zhubajie.com, which received 2.6 billion yuan of financing in June.

The company, currently estimated to be worth more than 10 billion yuan, is an online market where over ten million service providers, typically designers and advertisers, trade with three million small companies on a tight budget.

"We are not only a trading platform but also an incubator of startup companies that grow on the rising deals from the platform," said Zhu, who said the revenue this year is expected to quadruple that of last year at 200 million yuan.

With new trademark registration, printing and financing businesses, the company is expected to have a revenue of 1 billion yuan next year, he said.

"2015 is just the beginning," said Zhu.

China's service sector activity increased slightly in November, according to a survey conducted by financial information service provider Markit and sponsored by Caixin Media Co Ltd.

The Caixin China General Services PMI (Purchasing Managers' Index) came in at 51.2 in November. A reading above 50 indicates expansion, according to the survey released on Thursday.

Meanwhile, increasing urbanization is expected to create a new force in consumption, driving growth, said He Lisheng.

At present, China has 750 million urban residents including 250 million migrant workers who do not enjoy equal rights to education, employment, social security, medical care and housing.

The central government plans to help 100 million migrants settle in cities and enjoy equal public services by 2020, which will expand consumption, stabilize real estate markets and improve investment in urban infrastructure and public services, said He.

The professor called for the government to add more public services that cater for the new urban population in order to spur the economic growth.

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