by Yang Xi
In China a new breed of netizens is using the Internet to offer a problem solving service to individuals or companies in return for cash or rewards. The so-called Witkeys (Wei Ke in Pinyin) are mainly college students or young white collar workers based in Beijing and Shanghai.
Customers – called Challengers – post requests for help, stating a reward and deadline, and Witkeys then bid for the challenges, which range from thinking of a name for a pet to carrying out market research or developing software.
The craze has become so popular that there are more than 40 professional Witkey websites in China and over 600,000 registered Witkeys.
98 percent of respondents polled online by China Youth Daily Social Investigation Center and sohu.com said they would consider working either part-time or full-time as a Witkey.
31.4% see Witkey service as a way of making money
31.4 percent of respondents said the Witkey service was a new way of making money in the knowledge economy based around the Internet.
It is easy for an Internet user to set up as a Witkey, but much more difficult to make it pay and many people do it for fun or as a way of developing new skills.
Most Witkey website clients are small businesses, but Zhou Yu, CEO of vikecn.com says big businesses could also benefit from Witkey. He said Witkey services complement traditional industries.
Should everyone be a Witkey?
17.8 percent believed that everyone should participate in the online know-how business, but 15.4 percent said only young people make good Witkeys.
An expert said that only resourceful and creative people thrive as Witkeys, so people should be encouraged to join the industry. But 3.6 percent of those polled said Witkey was born because people could no longer be bothered to think for themselves.
On the whole, though, it looks like the Witkey phenomenon is set to grow. 89.4 percent saw the outlook for the Witkey industry as optimistic, while 27.3 percent said it deserved to be considered a new type of mainstream occupation.
(China.org.cn October 10, 2008)