Fainted in the toilet: 60% of Internet practitioners earn less than 6,000 yuan a month

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"Working is so tiring, I don't want to make it hard on myself when I spend money." This year is the third year that 28-year-old Qiu Qi has worked for a Beijing Internet giant. In 2012, shortly after graduating from a media major, she joined the Internet company as a product manager. After many assessments and promotions, she now earns more than many of her classmates.

"Internet companies pay a lot, but we get it for hard-earned money. Not to mention that we often have to work overtime until late at night, the pressure of projects and communication comes one after another, and I don't want to say a word when I get home." Qiu Qi said helplessly.

After nearly 20 years of development, China's Internet industry has been changing rapidly, and a group of industry giants have emerged, which have improved people's lives in a subtle way and inspired young people's innovative ideas. However, behind the glamour, under the pressure of rapid iteration and the fully competitive environment, many young practitioners seem to be thinking about things thousands of miles away, but in fact they are busy at the kitchen.

As shown in the "1% Sampling Survey of Beijing Youth" conducted by the Beijing Youth League Committee, there are about 619,000 young people working in the Internet industry in Beijing, with an average monthly income of 6,228.5 yuan, far exceeding that of other industries. However, 49.6% work more than 8 hours a day and 55.4% do not receive overtime pay, which shows that high-end industries do not represent high-end employment.

Young network practitioners are highly educated, young, knowledge-intensive blue-collar workers.

The survey revealed that in terms of demographic characteristics, 73.0% of practitioners are under 28 years old, with an average age of 26.7 years old; 67.0% have a bachelor's degree or above, of which 12.2% are postgraduates; and 65.1% of practitioners are non-local residents.

In terms of job distribution, there are not many product positions like Qiu Qi's. 19.3% are editors, 11.7% are developers, and 11.3% are operators. Overall, only 34.0% of people can get overtime pay according to the standard, which shows the characteristics of high monthly salary and low hourly wage, which is a typical knowledge-intensive blue-collar job.

Wang Fei is an undergraduate student majoring in journalism who just graduated a year ago. She now works as a text editor in a self-media company which was established in August 2014. She is mainly responsible for editing and publishing information for the company's Weibo, WeChat, blogs and other platforms.

"Although the company is still in the exploratory stage of platform construction and does not have as strict requirements as large companies, overtime work is the norm when a new project is launched. The first month of a new project is the busiest. I can only rest one day a week and have to work at least half an hour every night. It is voluntary and there is no overtime pay. During that time, I could not recover my energy and felt like I had no rest at the weekends."

The survey also revealed that the average monthly expenditure of this group reached 4,301.9 yuan, of which the proportion of survival expenditure was relatively large, with rent or mortgage accounting for 42.5%. The average monthly expenditure accounted for more than 70% of the monthly income of more than 90%, which basically belonged to the "poor busy group" with high income and expenditure. Moreover, the housing situation was unstable, with only 25.6% of people owning their own homes, and 67.8% of them were registered in Beijing, that is, only 12.3% of the non-Beijing Internet workers bought houses. The average monthly rent for renters was 2,146.6 yuan.

Wang Fei recently moved to a new residence that is closer to the company. "The transportation is more convenient and the living conditions are good. Of course, the rent has also increased a lot. The previous rent was 2,000 yuan, and now it has increased to 3,600 yuan." She used to spend more than three hours on the road, and the work pressure was relatively high in the early stage of the project. She felt very tired every day. "Fortunately, the work itself can absorb the 1,600 yuan difference, and the salary can still meet my psychological expectations."

In fact, the median and mode of this group of people are renting, of which 72.7% are sharing a house. More than half of the people are in a similar situation as Wang Fei, renting an area of ​​less than 20 square meters, of which 72.7% are sharing a house. 40.2% of the people have moved more than twice in the past three years.

Because in terms of spatial distribution, 64.2% of people live outside the Fourth Ring Road, of which 39.6% live outside the Fifth Ring Road. Therefore, 44.6% of people are "on the road" for more than one hour one way, which is much higher than the level of other practitioners.

High income is a minority, high pressure is the majority

The report shows that the proportion of practitioners with monthly income below 6,000 yuan is high, accounting for 63.7%, while those with monthly income above 10,000 yuan account for 13.6%. The proportion of high income is higher than the overall level of young practitioners. The mode and median of monthly income are both 5,000 yuan, which is a big gap. Moreover, the salary of large enterprises is about 10.0% higher than that of small enterprises, and the salary of R&D positions is 4 to 5 times that of operations and editing positions.

Many practitioners are not clear about their career and job expectations. The reasons are that, firstly, the job income in the industry itself is polarized due to the Matthew effect; secondly, personal career mobility and development bottlenecks coexist.

The survey found that young Internet users have high job mobility. 52.5% of them have changed jobs in the past three years, and only 11.2% are satisfied with their jobs. However, due to the particularity of the Internet industry, most of them are still working at the low end. The industry keeps pace with the times, which puts their knowledge structure and skills to the test. One young person said with emotion, "Once you enter IT, it's like a deep sea."

Like Wang Fei, Xiao Huang is also a former graduate who just graduated a year ago. He is currently working as a PC application developer at an emerging technology company. Although he has not been employed for a long time, he has changed jobs three times.

"My first job was as a programmer at a computer company in Jinan. I felt that I was just writing code every day and there was no future. Then, a well-known online women's clothing brand happened to be recruiting website operations managers, so I took the opportunity to change jobs." Xiao Huang's first two jobs did not last long. The first job lasted only half a month, and the second job only lasted half a year. "Compared with Jinan, the salary levels in Shanghai and Beijing are significantly higher. I want to work hard in a big city."

Activists on the Internet, lonely young people at home in real life

In terms of the personalities of practitioners, on the one hand, they are activists in the online world and promoters of the Internet’s transformation of life. 66.7% of them have paid attention to or participated in group activities in the online world, such as “human flesh search”, online signatures, and online support. 32.5% of them have written highly-regarded posts, and 16.2% of them have had their comments forwarded in large numbers on Weibo.

On the other hand, the high dependence on the Internet has led 41.2% of people to stay at home and surf the Internet in their spare time. However, the charm of the "big shots" and "influencers" on the Internet cannot be extended offline. The relatively low level of socialization in reality has resulted in 67.5% of the respondents having no more than five friends in Beijing, and 85.2% of them are classmates, colleagues and fellow townsmen.

Cui Guangfan, 25, currently works as a technical staff member at a famous search engine company. As a programmer, he is also a serious social media addict. Whenever there are some group activities such as Smile Day and running plans on the Internet, he always reposts them in large quantities to flood the screen.

"The Internet has made the voice of individuals much louder. When I was in college, I used to run a public marketing account for anime fans." In Cui Guangfan's view, the appeal of the Internet is achieved through investment and effort, and the idol effect also has a certain effect. "After you have a huge fan base, sometimes a word you say can have a huge impact. Although I have changed to a technical position and my personal social media has declined, I still hope to have a positive influence on people."

Qiu Qi realized that she lacked social connections in real life, so she followed her interests and participated in training at a baking workshop, where she met a group of friends who were very talented at work and as close as family members on weekends. "I would also join the company's interest groups and invite colleagues to climb Lingshan Mountain or play badminton on weekends." In Qiu Qi's view, the Internet age supports the freedom of active choice, but people often don't know what they need or what adventures and inspirations they will encounter, "so it is better to find inspiration and comfort in a richer and more real reality."

In general, only 12.8% of practitioners are dissatisfied with their situation. 61.2% will participate in continuing education to improve themselves, and 3.9% have the intention to start their own business. They are confident in themselves, both in the past and in the future.