A long period of overwork left a 24-year-old online shopkeeper dead inher sleep, raising concern in China about the working conditions and health ofthose working in the e-business sector.
After working late over many consecutive nights and not getting enough rest,"Aijun aj", the proprietor of an online shop, died of cardiac failureJuly 17 in east China's Anhui province, reported Xinhua.
"I just followed your Weibo when I saw reports about your death. I'm anonline shopkeeper, too, and I can understand your pain and hard work, whichothers cannot understand," Chinese microblogging site Weibo user"Xiaoming Joen" wrote on the last photo that "Aijun aj"posted July 16.
"Why does a day only have 24 hours? I want to be a rechargeablerobot," "Aijun aj" wrote on her Weibo account before she died.
Her death follows that of another online shopkeeper who died in Jiangsuprovince in May. Prior to her death, she also took to Weibo to complain thatstaying up late to package goods left her feeling exhausted.
Zhou Ming has run an online shop for five years, and says that when he startedhis business he often felt dizzy because he was doing all of his work alone,including stocking merchandise, consulting, packaging goods and sending thepackages.
Despite these health concerns, private online stores have some advantages overother e-commerce enterprises. Low investment, few employees, flexible workinghours and the ability to make a quick buck are aspects that are attracting moreand more young people to the field.
Statistics released by the China Internet Network Information Center showedthat Taobao.com, China's largest online retailer, currently has more than 6million professional shopkeepers, and nearly 10,000 new shops are registeredand 10,000 shops shut down every day.
Most Taobao shop owners say they work more than 10 hours each day.
In a health survey conducted among 50,000 online shopkeepers last year, morethan half said they suffer from headaches and other aches in their fingers,wrists and necks.
"Staying up late for consecutive nights, irregular eating and insufficientrest will easily cause hypoglycemia, hypokalemia and arrhythmia," saidWang Ailing, a doctor.
Yao Jianfang, an analyst with the China Internet Network Information Center,suggested that the e-commerce industry set up unified supervision andmanagement systems in order to create opportunities in the existing environmentof private small and medium-sized online shops.
According to statistics released by the center, China has more than 538 millioninternet users, 867 times the number that existed 15 years ago.