Trending on China’s TikTok: How to be a successful street vendor

The story of China’s economic success has often been told through rags-to-riches tales about famous tycoons and tech billionaires. Now as hundreds of millions of Chinese people try to weather a shrinking economy shocked by the coronavirus pandemic, some are hoping to find a small fortune in a humble place: Roadside market stalls.

Chatter about street hawking has soared online after encouragement from the Chinese premier, who saw it as a new source of income for workers who lost their jobs over the last few turbulent months. Videos under the hashtag #SettingUpStreetStalls have been viewed more than 760 million times on Douyin, the fenced-off Chinese version of TikTok, and some 19,000 times on rival Kuaishou.

The hype around street stalls, fueled by reports that some part-time vendors could make US$140 a night, has spawned a slew of content aimed at helping newbies get into the game. Some advice is reassuring, and some more wry.

“Can you get rich being a street vendor? You can’t, it’s entirely impossible,” said one vlogger whose explainer has drawn over 99,000 likes. “But it can be a practical business lesson for beginners to understand their competitors, the market and human nature -- all with an investment of just 1,000 to 2,000 yuan [US$140 to US$280].”

“Everyone has been talking about the street stall economy recently, that’s just right because my family runs a street stall,” another vlogger said. “My mom went from a rural village to the city when she was just a teen, all by making a living from street stalls.”