She got off work at 4:30 in the afternoon, but Wang Xiaomeng had no time or energy for entertainment. After working as an assistant broadcaster and an intern anchor for 2 hours in the TikTok live broadcast room, she only had a half-hour break at noon. Her mouth was already dry and she just wanted to go home and rest. "Home" is a dormitory provided by the company, which was previously used as an office. The words "Manager's Room" and "Conference Room" are also posted on the door. 10 girls live together and share a bathroom.
Born in Anhui and raised in Anhui, he never left while studying. He will graduate in July 2024. Wang Xiaomeng chose to become a "Yiwu Piao" and join the cross-border e-commerce team. Yiwu is the famous "Small Commodity Capital of the World". In recent years, Yiwu has actively transformed into e-commerce, with outstanding express delivery volume and e-commerce live broadcasts.
In this county-level city with an area of more than 1,000 square kilometers, the number of market business entities has exceeded 1 million. As far as the e-commerce industry is concerned, when Yiwu had 190,000 e-commerce business entities in 2019, there were already 500,000 employees. Now, Yiwu e-commerce business entities have also exceeded the 500,000 mark.
At present, Wang Xiaomeng’s monthly salary is 4,500 yuan. If he can become a regular anchor, it can be increased to 5,000 yuan plus commission, with a commission of 1 yuan for every 10 US dollars in sales. Five insurances and one housing fund are not available, and weekends are a luxury, but she knows that this is common in Yiwu.
"I came to Yiwu to make a lot of money." Wang Xiaomeng feels that there are many opportunities to make a fortune in Yiwu and is willing to compromise first.
If you ask netizens online: Should you go to Yiwu to work? Netizens will advise you that you can try starting a business, but you need to think twice about working because this is"A paradise for entrepreneurs and a hell for workers."The "hell" three-piece package is: five insurances and one housing fund, which are either completely absent or incomplete; working hours are long and single days off are common; job boundaries are blurred and work content is diverse.
But for "Wang Xiaomeng", even if they start the "Yiwu Piao" life in "hell" mode, they can finally support themselves. More importantly, above "hell" is "heaven", and working can be a preparation for starting a business.
When looking for a job in Yiwu, Wang Xiaomeng experienced the process from dissatisfaction to acceptance. In December, Yiwu was already in the cold air of winter. Wang Xiaomeng and several classmates rushed here from Anhui with large and small bags of luggage. The opportunity to come here was when I was in school and came into contact with an agency from Yiwu. After Wang Xiaomeng and others submitted their resumes, they received a notice to go to Yiwu one day.
Wang Xiaomeng thought her job was already secure, but she didn't expect to continue attending job fairs in Yiwu. At the job fair, Wang Xiaomeng submitted her resume and interview, and soon found herself in "hell mode". But now it was unrealistic to return to Anhui, so she, an English major, chose a company that does cross-border live broadcasting. There was no five insurances and one housing fund. The probation period salary was 4,000 yuan, including accommodation and two meals a day.
Joining the company is only the first step to officially become a "Yiwu Piao", and challenges come one after another.Wang Xiaomeng, who joined the company as a broadcast assistant, had to memorize information on 600 product selections in one day. On the third day after joining the company, the boss extended the live broadcast time by two hours and allowed several newcomers, including Wang Xiaomeng, to "trial broadcast". During the trial broadcast, there was no commission. When it was broadcast for the first time, Wang Xiaomeng's palms were sweaty, but she still persevered.
This situation does not only happen in Yiwu’s e-commerce industry.
"I want to find a foreign trade salesperson in Yiwu, one who can take 1.5 days off or more per week, 5K or more, and pay social security after becoming a full-time employee. Why is it so difficult to find one?" Li Zhuxin posted online, puzzled.
Li Zhuxin is a fresh graduate majoring in English in 2023. She holds a CET-6 English certificate, a second-level computer certificate and an English teacher qualification certificate. This summer, Li Zhuxin, who graduated in Hangzhou, came to Yiwu. In just a few weeks, she interviewed 15 companies, mainly trading companies.
However, she found that her undergraduate degree had no advantage here. No matter how big or small the company was, the boss would first check whether she had experience, and as for the language, "it would be enough."When the issue of social security is mentioned, recruiters either admit frankly that there will be no such thing, or they say that they will pay it after one to three years after becoming a regular employee.
A boss of a cross-border e-commerce company in Yiwu said that most jobs in his company "do not require academic qualifications", but he expects job seekers to "preferably have some experience." Even if there is only one month of experience, it means that the job seeker has a basic understanding of the job, and there is no need to train from scratch: "We can train new people all the time, but we don't have the conditions."
In the end, Li Zhuxin chose the company where she works now. The company exports textiles and has its own factory. It has only five employees, one of whom is the son of the boss. Although I still have a single day off, at least I pay social security, but I only have five insurances and no one fund (housing provident fund). My salary is just over 4,000. After the baptism of the interview, Li Zhuxin felt relatively satisfied.
In fact, Yiwu has a lot of support for fresh graduates who go to work in Yiwu. Companies can get subsidies for social security for fresh graduates. At the same time, fresh graduates themselves also receive subsidies. Li Zhuxin recently successfully applied for a subsidy and can receive 800 yuan a month: "But I don't think the boss knows about this subsidy at all, and I don't bother to remind her."
Li Zhuxin joined the company as a foreign trade salesperson, but her job was much more than that.Most of the week, she is an "urban beauty", sitting in an office building near Zhongfu Plaza in Yiwu, communicating with clients in English. One day a week, she works as a shop assistant in the trade city. The huge Yiwu International Trade City has gathered more than 70,000 merchants and is a landmark building here. Customers from various countries come in and out here, looking for sources of goods. At the end of the day, there are usually no more than 5 people entering the store for consultation, and Li Zhuxin spends most of her time bored.
From time to time, the boss would take Li Zhuxin out to have dinner with clients, and they wouldn't leave until nine or ten o'clock. During the days when she went to attend the "Canton Fair", Li Zhuxin worked until early morning every day.
In addition, Li Zhuxin also edited promotional videos for the company. When her boss wanted to start a Douyin store, she took pictures of the products and put them online. What makes her most helpless is that sometimes she has to help her boss look after her son, who is still in elementary school, and pick him up from school and help with homework.
Liu Ya, who also graduated this year and came to Yiwu from Ningbo, also had a similar experience. She joined a freight forwarding company targeting the Indian market, and her original position was brand planning. Although the company has about 50 people, she still has to do "everything", from local promotion to offline event planning, and even poster design.
Beyond the challenges of work,"Become an island"It's the reality they're fighting against. “Yiwu Piao” all understand that without establishing a social network in this city, there is no real integration. But this is not easy to do.
Wang Xiaomeng doesn't get off work very late. She starts broadcasting at 4:30 every day and takes a short break before getting off work. But she worked herself to exhaustion and had no energy to socialize, or even the thought to wander around by herself. In a company dormitory where 10 people live together, Wang Xiaomeng made her roommates dissatisfied because of her snoring, which worsened the already not close relationship. She often communicates online with her sisters who came to Yiwu, and learned that although they live alone, they spend more than 1,000 yuan a month on renting a house, and their situation is not much better than her own.
The high mobility makes it difficult for "Yiwu Piao" to stabilize their interpersonal relationships.Some people can't stay. Wang Xiaomeng joined the new batch of assistant broadcasters and intern anchors: "All the undergraduates before me have left." If he can successfully become a full-time employee, Wang Xiaomeng doesn't think that many of the people who came in at the same time will stay.
In addition, someone who is a colleague today may start a business tomorrow. One of Li Zhuxin's previous salesmen has already gone out to "work alone" and do live broadcasts to "open cards". Sometimes, Li Zhuxin would watch his live broadcast silently.
Everyone is busy and wants to make money. This is Li Zhuxin’s impression of Yiwu.The most direct impact came from the boss: "How busy is she? You can't waste a minute in life. She is busy in the store and has to attend an event after get off work, so she invites the manicurist to the store and does her nails while still busy at work. When buying clothes, she not only doesn't want to She didn’t have time to go shopping or buy online. She would just send the pictures to me if she saw something posted by someone else and buy it. She would not waste time on editing the pictures. She sent them to me and asked me to open a Meitu Xiuxiu membership to help her fix them.”
Li Zhuxin still remembers that some time ago, a star came to Yiwu for a concert. Someone took a video half an hour before the start. The audience was empty, thinking that Yiwu people were too busy to attend the concert. In fact, people in Yiwu also watch it, but they are stuck: "The concert starts at 7:30, and people here can't wait to get in at 7:25."
Liu Ya came to Yiwu from Ningbo after graduating from university and has been working here for half a year. Although there are dozens of people in the company, there are no friends in her life, only colleagues with whom she has a normal relationship and colleagues with whom she has a good relationship.
On the one hand, this is a lively city where people from all over the world gather, and foreigners and authentic foreign restaurants can be found everywhere. Liu Ya has experienced the human touch and fireworks of Yiwu. On the other hand, this is a city where "everyone wants to make money", but Liu Ya learned to be alone here.
Colleagues with whom she had good connections enthusiastically tried to find potential partners for Liu Ya, urging her to "find someone rich." If Liu Ya tells where in Yiwu a local man lives, his colleagues can immediately tell what his family conditions are like.
However, such efforts did not have any effect, and Liu Ya remained single.Many times Liu Ya wanted to have fun, but found that none of her colleagues were free, so she had to go alone.In the past, Liu Ya felt that going to night markets and watching movies alone was a disgraceful thing, but now she is used to it. When she is in a bad mood, she goes to KTV to open a small box and sing for three hours for 19.9 yuan.
Liu Ya rented a single room near her unit. The area was small, only about 20 square meters, but it had a fully equipped kitchen and bathroom. The entire building where Liu Ya's single room is located belongs to the landlord, who has specially divided the building into single rooms for rent. Such single rooms can be seen everywhere in Yiwu, and the rent is about a thousand yuan. They are densely packed and separate the migrant workers.
What makes "Yiwu Piao" persist? Working may be "hell", but the "heaven" of starting a business is waving ahead.
The three classmates who went to Yiwu from Anhui with Wang Xiaomeng almost all wanted to resign, but she "wanted to make a lot of money" and still wanted to work hard to become a full-time employee: "At least work until the end of the year (before the Spring Festival)."
Wang Xiaomeng was originally willing to come to Yiwu because she took a fancy to the opportunities here. However, she believes that she is far from having the ability to start a business, and her current goal is to officially become an anchor: "Assistants are worthless, and they can be replaced soon. And now I have adapted a lot as a anchor, and I want to make more money. I don't want to be someone who can be replaced at any time. The boss takes me very seriously and gave me a bonus of several hundred yuan a few days ago."
If she becomes a regular, Wang Xiaomeng's income is expected to reach a higher level. She heard that the previous anchor could earn a commission of 5,000 yuan a month, and plus the basic salary, the income would be about 10,000 yuan. This will make her feel one step closer to her dream.
Although her salary is average and her five insurances and one housing fund are incomplete, Li Zhuxin wants to learn communication skills from her boss. "The boss is really generous in this regard." When Li Zhuxin went to the Canton Fair with her boss, she was taken along to the market. The boss didn't speak English, so the group "intercepted" foreigners at high-end hotels and airports and gave them brochures promoting their textile business, while Li Zhuxin translated.
Li Zhuxin also feels that she has been changed a lot by Yiwu: "I used to be an I person, but now I am an E person." i and e are dimensions in the personality test mbti, with i representing introversion and e representing extroversion. Whether at the Canton Fair, visiting stores, or even visiting night markets, Li Zhuxin always wants to exchange business cards with people. It is best to use her personal mobile phone to add the other party's WeChat.
Privately adding clients on WeChat was not allowed by the boss, but Li Zhuxin wanted to accumulate connections for herself. If a foreign trade salesperson has enough network resources, he can "SOHO", that is, freelance and flexibly connect.
At the beginning of this job, Li Zhuxin wanted to take the examination and become a teacher, but now she feels that the ratio between continuing to develop in Yiwu and becoming a teacher is "half and half."
In "hell", but with the intention of going to "heaven" to gain energy, this situation seems to be very common in Yiwu. A young man who also works in Yiwu said that he is an "Amazon clerk" during the day and works on his online store at night. "It is very tiring but also very fulfilling."
And those who don’t have the mentality to “go it alone” have a harder time persevering.
Liu Ya’s boss is about thirty years old and full of energy. Like Li Zhuxin, Liu Ya was also affected. I was walking on the street with my boss and passed by a store. The boss saw that this store had not added WeChat, so he immediately walked in and started communicating. Liu Ya did not go in, shivering in the cold wind on the street. She has no idea of starting a business in the future and has great admiration for her boss, but she does not want to be like him.
Liu Ya already had the idea of leaving. When she was interning in Ningbo, she was put off by the coldness of the office building and the workplace atmosphere. She chose to come to Yiwu because she thought it might be more dynamic. In this regard, Yiwu has indeed met her expectations, but the frequent overtime work, the "PUA" of her immediate superiors, and the loneliness of "Yiwu drifting" are eroding her confidence in staying here.
(Wang Xiaomeng, Liu Ya and Li Zhuxin are all pseudonyms in the article)