People visit the China International Digital Economy Expo in Shijiazhuang, north China's Hebei Province, October 11, 2019. Photo: Xinhua

 The sustainable development and corporate social responsibility pursued by Chinese internet platform companies have intersected with the country’s goal of common prosperity, according to a new report released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).

Li Haijian, a senior official from the CASS, said that the internet platform economy – with characteristics including ecological economy and digital economy, as well as the features of openness, equality and inclusiveness – can help to promote common prosperity.

According to the report, as the digital economy is the new driving force of China's economic development, the leading internet platform enterprises have made contributions in boosting employment, poverty alleviation and rural revitalization.

In 2021, major Chinese internet firms like Tencent, Alibaba, Meituan and JD launched special plans for common prosperity, investing hundreds of billions of yuan in social responsibility.

Among the 41 surveyed companies, Tencent, Alibaba and JD ranked the top three in terms of the contribution to boosting common prosperity, the report showed.

Moreover, the major internet platform companies have incubated a large number of innovative enterprises and individual entrepreneurs with their innovative capabilities and advanced tools, providing tens of millions of new employment opportunities, making positive contributions to the country's efforts to alleviate difficulties, stabilize employment, facilitate high-quality development of the real economy, expand middle-income groups and bridge the digital divide. 

In the future, the internet platforms, with their own volume, technology and scale advantages, will still have considerable potential and are indispensable participants in the construction of common prosperity.

According to the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, the employment opportunities provided by WeChat alone totaled as high as 36.84 million in 2020. In addition, WeChat has gradually formed a platform network covering 1.225 billion WeChat users, 50 million merchants and more than 60,000 service providers by relying on digital tools such as mini programs and WeChat Pay, which has played an important role in promoting consumption and stabilizing employment during the epidemic.

Alibaba's employment system brought access to income for more than 69 million people in 2019. Moreover, as of August 2020, a total of 9.31 million delivery workers have gained jobs and achieved income growth through the Meituan platform.