Many companies in China have been taking measures to attract talents in minority languages, due to the rapid growth of overseas business opportunities brought about by cross-border live broadcasts on e-commerce platforms.

According to data from a cross-border e-commerce platform, the demand for overseas business opportunities brought by live broadcasts in 2022 increased by 277 percent year on year. More and more overseas wholesalers tend to make orders through watching live broadcasts, which also strengthened the market for language talents.

Lyu Chenqian, who is engaged in Spanish live streaming at a foreign trade company in Yiwu, east China's Zhejiang Province, graduated from Zhejiang International Studies University. She told China Central Television (CCTV) that a fourth of her classmates have entered the cross-border e-commerce industry.

"I felt quite nervous when doing live broadcast in the beginning, but after doing it for a period, I am fond of it. As language learners, we like to talk and chat with people, so we actually enjoy the process when there are guests talking to us," said Lyu.

In order to attract more minority language talents, cross-border e-commerce companies not only offer high salaries, but also launch cooperation projects with relevant schools to find targets in advance.

"This year, we are optimistic about the overall market, so we plan to increase the number of new recruits by one third from the original plan. The demand for the entire group should be around 1,000 people," said Chen Xiaolong, human resource manager of a foreign trade company, at a special job fair in Yiwu.

Liu Ling, who runs a business of accessories, is full of expectations for the recruitment of talents in minority languages. She said that in the past two years, the overseas sales of glass beads, colored balls and other products increased by more than 50 percent year on year. She said the company is cooperating with language schools to seize overseas markets.

"At the beginning, we focused on the UK market and the U.S. market. But then these two markets became very saturated, with more people entering with English skills. We considered the demand and started to expand the Spanish market. Originally we had only one account broadcasting in Spanish, but now we have six accounts doing the job," said Liu.

Statistics show that in the first week of March, more than 700,000 overseas customers watched more than 50,000 live broadcasts of Chinese companies on a cross-border e-commerce platform, and more than 60,000 foreign trade companies in China have launched cross-border live broadcasts on the platform.

Feeling the hot demand for live broadcast, some schools have also specially set up corresponding courses for students.

"Minority language talents are still rare on the market. Based on the school-enterprise cooperation, many of our good students were recruited by companies in advance. Most people are optimistic about the overall foreign trade situation, and the employment demand and current operating status of enterprises are showing a positive trend," said Cao Jingjing, Dean of the School of Foreign Languages and Foreign Trade under the Yiwu Industrial and Commercial College.

According to the data from a cross-border e-commerce company, in the past year, live broadcasts in minority languages on the platform increased by 166 percent year on year, with languages covering German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Arabic.