Chart of the Day: Sharing Economy Grew Over 40% Last Year

China’s sharing economy was worth 2.94 trillion yuan ($440 billion) last year, up 41.6% year-on-year, a report by a government think tank said.

Activities counted as part of the sharing economy by the State Information Center are those which involve consumers or businesses sharing resources through online platforms, according to the report released Thursday.

Much of the increase was driven by the rapid growth of production capacity sharing, which was up 97.5% to 823.6 billion yuan and accounted for 28% of the total. Production capacity was defined in the report as the fixed assets companies use for production, such as machines in a factory.

The service industry — including food delivery — accounted for 54% of the total sharing economy. It was up 23% year-on-year to 1.6 trillion yuan.

China’s sharing economy will increase by an average of 30% annually for the next three years, the report estimated.

It is likely that many of the people offered job opportunities by the sector’s growth will come from rural areas. In 2018, 77% of the 2.7 million delivery drivers working for Meituan Dianping came from rural areas, and around 670,000 riders were from counties designated as impoverished, the report said.

Contact reporter Tang Ziyi (ziyitang@caixin.com)