青才荟 | 海归青年如何择业跨境电商、数字人领域？

This is a summary of a venture capital salon focused on cross-border e-commerce and digital humans, held in Hangzhou for returnee young entrepreneurs. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. Basic event information: Held on August 27 at the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center of Zhejiang University, the event with the theme "Live Streaming + Cross-border E-commerce" was co-hosted by multiple institutions. It attracted over 100 elites, entrepreneurs, and overseas students, with the core goal of gathering capital and returnee talent, breaking down communication barriers, and helping entrepreneurs connect with domestic industrial and capital resources.

2. Core industry conclusions: Digital humans have opened up a new development direction for the live streaming industry, enabling richer content diversity, higher content credibility, and stronger interactivity and user engagement. In cross-border e-commerce, supply chain is the core determinant of success. Building an efficient supply chain covering transportation, customs clearance and last-mile delivery improves delivery quality and builds consumer trust, while shaping a distinct brand image is also key to standing out from competition.

3. Local development opportunities: Hangzhou boasts a well-developed cross-border e-commerce ecosystem and favorable policy support. It encourages entrepreneurs including returnees to enter the cross-border e-commerce and digital human sectors, with dedicated institutions providing supporting employment and entrepreneurship services.

Below are key takeaways from the salon for brands going global and engaging in brand marketing:

1. Core operating logic for cross-border expansion: Global trade is moving toward greater facilitation and integration, leaving considerable room for growth in cross-border expansion. Supply chain is the fundamental foundation for successful brand globalization. Brands need to build an efficient and reliable end-to-end supply chain covering transportation, customs clearance and delivery to boost delivery speed and quality, and build consumer trust and loyalty. In a crowded market, building a unique brand identity is key to standing out.

2. A new direction for brand marketing: Digital human-powered live streaming opens new innovative opportunities for brand marketing. It not only enriches the diversity of a brand's live content, but also improves content credibility while boosting interactivity and engagement with consumers. It is an emerging marketing track well worth brands' investment.

3. Local expansion opportunities: As China's first comprehensive pilot zone for cross-border e-commerce, Hangzhou has cultivated a thriving, rainforest-like ecosystem for cross-border e-commerce, complemented by well-designed introduction and cultivation policies. Brands can establish a presence in Hangzhou to access resources and scale their cross-border business.

Below are key insights from the salon for cross-border e-commerce and live streaming sellers:

1. Policy and market environment: As China's first comprehensive pilot zone for cross-border e-commerce, Hangzhou has built a mature, supportive ecosystem for cross-border e-commerce and rolled out multiple policies to nurture the industry. Sellers looking to expand cross-border business can access a sound industrial environment and policy support by establishing operations in Hangzhou. Against the backdrop of trade facilitation and global integration, cross-border e-commerce still offers substantial room for overall growth.

2. Opportunities in an emerging track: Digital humans represent a new development direction for the live streaming industry. Digital human live streaming enriches content formats, improves interactivity and credibility, and can bring new traffic and conversion opportunities for sellers, making it well worth exploring and entering.

3. Practical operating tips: For cross-border expansion, prioritize building an efficient and reliable end-to-end supply chain to guarantee delivery speed and quality. At the same time, focus on building a differentiated brand image to boost consumer trust and loyalty, so you can gain a firm foothold in fierce market competition and achieve long-term growth.

Below are core takeaways from the salon for factories looking to enter cross-border e-commerce:

1. Accessible business opportunities: As China's first comprehensive pilot zone for cross-border e-commerce, Hangzhou has developed a mature, rainforest-like cross-border e-commerce ecosystem, with supporting policies tailored for returnee entrepreneurs and new market entrants. Factories looking to expand cross-border business can consider setting up operations in Hangzhou to access abundant industrial resources and policy support, and unlock new growth opportunities.

2. Insights on product and supply chain demands: Cross-border export brands increasingly demand higher efficiency and reliability from their supply chains. Factories need to optimize their own supply chain systems, improve response speed and guarantee delivery quality to better meet the needs of cross-border business and secure more cooperation opportunities with high-quality brand clients.

3. Insights on digital transformation: Digital humans have already entered the live streaming sector as a new industry development direction, confirming that industry-wide digital upgrading is a major trend. Accelerating digital transformation will not only help factories adapt to the development needs of the cross-border e-commerce industry, but also allow them to explore new direct sales channels such as digital human live streaming to capture new market opportunities.

Below are core insights from the salon for service providers serving the live streaming and cross-border e-commerce sectors:

1. Industry development trends: The live streaming industry has now entered a phase of innovation driven by digital humans, while cross-border e-commerce continues to grow steadily. Both tracks hold massive untapped service demand and broad market space. Digital human technology brings a whole new direction of innovation for live streaming, while cross-border e-commerce continues to expand in scale amid advancing global trade integration.

2. Key client pain points: For cross-border clients, the core pain point is building an efficient and reliable end-to-end supply chain covering transportation, customs clearance and delivery. Most cross-border clients also need to build differentiated private brands. For live streaming clients, core demands include upgrading content formats, improving content credibility and boosting user interactivity.

3. Direction for business expansion: Service providers can develop targeted solutions focused on cross-border supply chain services, brand marketing services, and digital human live streaming technology output. Meanwhile, Hangzhou is vigorously cultivating the cross-border e-commerce industry and has gathered a large pool of entrepreneurial clients, so service providers can establish a local presence to tap into new business opportunities.

Below are key takeaways from the salon for platform operators in the cross-border e-commerce and live streaming sectors:

1. Current market demand: Merchants have clear, rigid demand for improving supply chain efficiency and building private brands. Digital human live streaming has become a key new direction for merchant investment, and a growing number of returnee entrepreneurs are entering the cross-border e-commerce and digital human sectors. Large numbers of new entrepreneurs need to access platform resources to support their growth.

2. Industrial environment and expansion opportunities: As China's first comprehensive pilot zone for cross-border e-commerce, Hangzhou is working to build a favorable rainforest-like ecosystem for cross-border e-commerce, rolled out multiple policies to nurture industry and talent, and continues to build a global pool of young talent to attract returnees to start businesses locally. Platform operators can align with Hangzhou's local industrial policies, establish a presence in the city to expand business and capture new growth.

3. Direction for operational optimization: Platforms can launch supporting services tailored to new entrepreneurs' needs, including supply chain services, digital human tooling, and brand incubation. They can also carry out targeted recruitment for returnee entrepreneurs to gather high-quality new merchant resources, build a bridge connecting talent and capital, break down cooperation barriers, and drive their own growth.

Below are industry insights from the salon for industry researchers:

1. Current new industry trends: First, the live streaming industry is upgrading toward digital human integration. The application of digital human technology in live streaming enriches content formats, improves content credibility and enhances user interaction, making it a new innovation direction for the industry. Second, cross-border e-commerce continues to grow steadily. Against the background of trade facilitation and global integration, Chinese brands have entered a new stage of global expansion, with strong entrepreneurial enthusiasm in the space.

2. Changes in the core logic of industry development: The core success factor for cross-border e-commerce has shifted from early traffic dividends to competition based on supply chain and brand. An efficient and reliable end-to-end supply chain is the foundation of development, while differentiated brand building is the core competitiveness for long-term competition. This shift warrants in-depth research.

3. A new model for local industry cultivation: As China's first comprehensive pilot zone for cross-border e-commerce, Hangzhou has explored a new industry cultivation model that gathers capital and talent, breaks down cooperation barriers for returnee entrepreneurs, builds a global pool of young talent, and supports industrial development with complete supporting policies. This path for local industrial ecosystem cultivation is worthy of research and summary.