Service vendor website no pig in a poke

A famous porker is its mascot, but Zhubajie isn't hogging profits

The electronic screen on the office wall shows the proposals in real time.

All over China, people and businesses are seeking someone to design a logo, design a website or provide a name for a brand. Some customers are from elsewhere in East Asia, while others are from the United States.

It's the office of Chongqing Zhubajie Network Technology Co Ltd, China's largest online service transaction platform.

Zhubajie, a major character in the Ming Dynasty (AD 1368-1644) novel Pilgrimage To The West, was supposedly reincarnated as a pig. The pig is also the company "mascot", and its image is everywhere in the office.

Chongqing Zhubajie Network Technology Co Ltd has created the equivalent of more than 10,000 full-time jobs and many more part-time gigs. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Zhubajie might also be said to represent the culture of the company. On the one hand, the pig is regarded as clumsy, slack or even foolish in Chinese culture. But the name reveals other aspects of the organization: persevering and focused.

Starting his working life as a local newspaper reporter, founder Zhu Mingyue in the mid-2000s was fascinated by the ever-expanding reach of the Internet and e-commerce.

Zhu was convinced that the online outsourcing business was a vast ocean of untapped opportunity. At the end of 2005, he established the site as a part-time venture. In 2006, he gave up his job to work on the business full-time.

At the time, he didn't dream that the venture would become the largest online service transaction platform in the country.

Daily deals now stand at 4 million yuan ($655,700). More than 1 million users have sealed deals on the site, and more than 10,000 service vendors generate annual revenue of more than 50,000 yuan through the site.

Zhubajie has created the equivalent of more than 10,000 full-time jobs and many more part-time gigs. Tens of thousands of college students have made a buck on the website, and thousands of advertising employees moonlight there.

"We thought that the online service trade was a promising business, but we hadn't expected there would be such a gap between the idea and the execution," Zhu said.