New growth opportunities in emergingindustries such as the internet economy played a bigger role in bolsteringeconomic growth during the first three quarters of the year, officials andexperts said. Liu Aihua, a spokeswoman for the National Bureau of Statistics,said China has accelerated its industrial transformation efforts despite theCOVID-19 epidemic.

"Internet-based sectors and otheremerging sectors, despite the downside pressure, saw strong growth (during thefirst three quarters)," Liu said during a news conference. "They haveplayed a significant part in epidemic prevention and control, providingresidents daily necessities and promoting economic growth."

Liu said 5G network construction, railtransport and other "new infrastructure" construction as well as newtypes of consumption helped spur growth in China. In September, the number ofurban rail vehicles and smartwatches jumped by more than 50 percent and 70percent respectively on a yearly basis, NBS data showed.

"The latest economic data proved thatthe internet-powered new economy has played an increasingly important role inboosting economic growth," said Chen Duan, executive director of theZhongjing Digital Economy Research Center. "The new economy has providedstrong impetus to the economy, driving deeper integration of the supply anddemand sides as well as a wide range of business innovation."

Chen painted a rosy picture of the futuredevelopment of China's digital economy. "The booming livestreaminge-commerce has highlighted the huge potential of the new economy. Currently, weare at an early stage in terms of digital development. The future developmentof new sectors such as 5G-powered new infrastructure construction will helpweather the novel coronavirus effect, promote digital transformation in therelated industries and further help restructure the economy."

Looking ahead, Chen said that governmentmeasures to contain the COVID-19 outbreak, resume work and production andbolster the new economy have been effective. Pan Helin, executive director ofthe Digital Economy Academy of the Zhongnan University of Economics and Law inHubei, highlighted the role of digital growth in the economic recovery process.

"While many traditional industrieswere hit badly by the COVID-19 epidemic, new types of business like onlineshopping, livestreaming in e-commerce, online health and online education areholding up better, contributing strongly to the economic growth and employmentstability," said Pan.

He highlighted the huge growth potential ofdigital and industrial digitalization, adding that it would help fostersustainable and high-quality development in the long run. "On the premiseof the government's effective measures to contain the coronavirus pandemic, thedigital economy is set to further promote growth in the fourth quarter,"said Pan.

After years of development, the digitaleconomy is now the integral driving force for economic growth, said a recentwhite paper published by the China Academy of Information and CommunicationsTechnology. According to the paper, the added value of China's industrialdigitalization reached 28.8 trillion yuan ($4.3 trillion) in 2019, accountingfor 29 percent of the country's GDP.

Walking and posing while sporting theseason's latest fashions, three young women looked into a camera and said:"Don' forget to pay attention to our new clothes next week." Thepresentation on Douyin, a popular Chinese short-video platform, was watched bya multitude of viewers.

"The three girls, in their 20s, arelivestreaming hosts of our company," said Xiao Shenghui, manager ofHangzhou Dato Sri Tech Co Ltd, a livestreaming e-commerce company engaged inthe design and sales of women's clothes.

The trio, who were laid off from a foreigntrade clothing corporation that went bankrupt earlier this year due to theCOVID-19 pandemic, now choose to sell clothes through their own livestreamingplatforms.

"We can know very quickly if ourproducts are embraced or not since all orders are made online simultaneouslywith hosts offering items for sale," said Xiao, adding that this kind ofsales platform can quickly clean up inventories overstocked due to the epidemicthis year.

"As an early adopter and leader in theinternet celebrity economy and livestreaming industry, Hangzhou has a completeindustrial chain and strong industrial base," said Xiao, when asked why hechose to engage in livestreaming e-commerce in the city. Yearning to become aspopular as Viya Huang, arguably the country's top-ranked internet celebrity bytransaction volume, a growing number of hosts are flocking to Hangzhou.

Well-developed in e-commerce, Hangzhoustands out for its first mover advantage, since the city's merchants have agood nose for the market and are already tuned into and turned ontolivestreaming, said Cui Lili, director of the Institute of E-commerce atShanghai University of Finance and Economics, in a report issued by 21stCentury Business Herald in July.

The city took top spot nationwide on TaobaoLive, the livestreaming arm of Alibaba, according to a report issued by theHangzhou-based conglomerate on March 30. It is already home to a string oflivestreaming platform giants such as Taobao Live, Mogujie and Youzan, and hasattracted nearly 400,000 hosts, most of them gathered in Hangzhou's Jiubaosubdistrict.

Jiubao has enjoyed certain advantages inthe livestreaming economy in the clothing industry for many years and is hometo numerous social media influencers such as Zhang Dayi, who was among China'sfirst online celebrities engaged in selling women's clothes on Taobao.

"The mature e-commerce operationmechanism and rich atmosphere of livestreaming in Hangzhou were major appealsfor me to start up a business here," Wang Xin, manager of GuangdongXiepinhui Co Ltd, told China Daily.

As a livestreaming e-commerce companyengaged in selling shoes, Xiepinhui relocated its livestreaming studio fromGuangzhou to MG 19 Qizhang Park in August－an e-commercelivestreaming industrial park in Hangzhou－and has recentlyseen soaring sales revenue.

Located in the core part of HangzhouQiantang Smart Town, the hub of the online celebrity economy, the eight-storeypark has attracted more than 130 enterprises, among them product suppliers,livestreaming e-commerce operators and multichannel network institutions.

"Most of the enterprises andinstitutions settled here were attracted by the complete livestreamingindustrial chain in Hangzhou Qiantang Smart Town," said a manager of thepark, adding that its occupancy rate had reached more than 90 percent by theend of September.

Every morning, Liu Jinyin gets up withplans to record and share his life through short videos and livestreaming. The29-year-old farmer from Luzhou, Sichuan province, has almost 1 million followerson several short video platforms－Douyin, Kuaishou and Xigua, to name a few－that hosthis content.

Apart from some urban residents who areinterested in the rural lifestyle depicted in his videos, most of his followersare rural people like him. "Most people in the countryside know shortvideo apps and spend a lot of time on them," said Liu, whose educationended when he finished primary school.

A report released by the China InternetNetwork Information Center in late April showed that through March, China had atotal of 904 million internet users. Of them, 255 million, or 28 percent, werefrom rural areas. As the number of short-video app users reached 773 million inthe country as noted in the report, the number of short-video app users inChina's rural areas reached an estimated 216 million.

Zhu Wei, deputy director of theCommunication Law Research Center at China University of Political Science andLaw, said short-video apps are well-received in the countryside because theyoffer content that is closely tied with rural life. They also have very lowthresholds for users, and people don't need much knowledge or educationalbackgrounds to use them.

Xia Jinxing, director of the School ofVocational Education Teachers at Chongqing Normal University, said China has alarge rural population and the agricultural activities they engage in areseasonal.

"It means that people living in therural areas have great amounts of free time and need a lot ofentertainment," said Xia, who served as the deputy director of the Schoolof Education at Hunan Agriculture University for a decade and kept anobservation on the rural demographic.

"In recent years, the living standardfor people in rural areas has improved greatly," he added. "That'sthanks to the government's policy of lifting people out of poverty. Morefarmers have also had their own mobile phones, which has laid a foundation forthe popularity of short video apps in the countryside."

Liu Yuanju, a researcher at the ShanghaiInstitute of Finance and Law, said while residents in urban areas have a widerange of amusement, including karaoke and movies, people living in rural areasof China have very limited access to entertainment.

"Against such a backdrop, shortvideos, which only require an inexpensive mobile phone and very simpleoperation, became a major form of recreation for them," he said. Evencompared to TV series or movies, which can also be watched on mobile phones,short videos have apparent advantages.

While many people in the countryside areenjoying the content produced by others on short-video apps, other people, likeLiu Jinyin from Sichuan province, have begun generating their own contents andprofiting off it.

Three years ago, Liu watched short videosduring his spare time on the job as a construction worker and found the videosamusing. These seconds or minutes-long "short films" produced byordinary people, fell into all types of categories－deliciousfood, beautiful scenery, jokes and daily life among others. They firmly seizedhis attention.

After watching thousands of videos and realizingmaking them was not difficult, he decided to make a few of his own. What he hadnot expected was that catching fish, planting crops, feeding pigs and cooking,all the most ordinary things happened in his life, could attract so muchattention.

Now the tips and rewards he receives fromfollowers alone can amount to hundreds of thousands of yuan a year, much morethan what he earned working at construction sites. "My father can'tbelieve that I can earn money at home by doing this," he said.

A better-known and more successful exampleis Li Ziqi, who started shooting short videos about Chinese food and her lifewith her grandmother in the countryside of Southwest China's Sichuan provincein 2015. After gaining tens of millions of followers on domestic short videoplatforms, her YouTube channel also reached 10 million followers in April.

Last year, sales of agricultural productsand food in her store on Alibaba's Tmall, an online shopping platform in China,exceeded 70 million yuan ($10.36 million). In August, she expanded her businessby opening a factory producing luosifen, a type of Chinese rice noodleoriginating from South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, in theregion's Liuzhou city.

According to data from iResearch consultingcompany, commercialization of the short video industry has matured after eightyears of development, and overall income for the industry in China is expectedto reach 211 billion yuan by the end of this year. This trend has benefitedmore rural people, and not only influential video makers like Liu and Li. Moreordinary farmers are also seeing encouraging results.