BEIJING, April 28 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Internet enterprises such as Alibaba, Tencent, and ByteDance are scaling up investment in the online office market to meet exploding demands.
As traditional office mode is affected by the COVID-19 epidemic, many enterprises turn to remote communication, video conference, online sales, etc. to resume their business. During the Chinese Spring Festival holidays, more than 18 million enterprises in China adopted remote office, with over 300 million employees working from home, according to data from iiMedia Research, a China-based research institute.
Online office is also supported by Chinese authorities. For example, Shanghai has stepped up efforts to promote work from home, and encourages the development of new remote office modes.
In response to the huge market demands, Alibaba, Tencent, Huawei, and ByteDance have optimized or launched free online office services.
For instance, Baidu upgraded its online office brand on Monday to build a new generation of artificial intelligence office platform that supports large-scale audio and video conferences.
Tencent keeps iterating its online conference functions and services by adding virtual background, voice incentive, and bullet screen to meet the needs in different scenarios.
Online office can transcend the constraints of time and space, helping enterprises save costs. Such a convenient office mode is expected to become a normal working mechanism as people's habits are gradually evolving, stated Pan Helin, executive director with the digital economy research institute under Zhongnan University of Economics and Law.
The popularity of online office will accelerate the digital transformation of enterprises, and boost the expansion of office scenarios and the rise of new employment methods, stated an analyst with iiMedia Research.
Data from the research company showed that the scale of China's smart mobile office market was 28.8 billion yuan in 2019. With the growth of online office demands and the development of user habits, the market is expected to expand rapidly to reach 44.9 billion yuan this year. (Edited by Su Dan with Xinhua Silk Road, silviasu07@163.com)
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