阿姨来了家政平台

Domestic helpers are increasingly common in Chinese homes, but it often takes a long time to find the right fit. Online service agencies are now trying to make the process easier.

An Online-to-Offline agency called Ayilaile holds training classes for housekeepers. Having been in the home service industry for eight years, the company migrated to the Internet in 2013. It now runs business in 12 cities—including Shanghai, where more than 1,000 housekeepers are on call.

"The training is quite formal. We're taught to do housework like maintaining home appliances, looking after the elderly, and cooking nutritious meals. I used to earn 4,500 to 5,000 yuan a month before I started work here. But now after the training, my salary has risen to 6,000 or 7,000," said a housekeeper.

Potential employers can get access to all the information about potential housekeepers via the company's website, mobile apps or WeChat account. Or they can let an agent do it for them, who will take care of everything from recruiting, to signing contracts, to mediating conflicts.

"I trust my agents, they've actually liberated me from a lot of worry. I don't need to bother finding a suitable housekeeper by myself any more, especially during holidays when there are fewer around but at higher prices. Although I have to pay a little bit more here, I feel much more at ease," said an employer.

The country now has hundreds of thousands of offline home service agencies, but 80 percent of them are small and informal, and their unstandardized management has long been criticized.

"The traditional home service industry is dominated by individual agents, which has its limitations in allocating and sharing human resources with social demands. For example, there are times when we have enough clients but not enough housekeepers, and vice versa. This means the sector is rather inefficient. That's why we've made the shift from offline to online channels," said Yu Zhenwei, director of Administration & Human Resources of Ayilaile.

As just a small part of the O2O personal service market, China's housekeeping platforms are booming, with the growing size of country's middle class and more hectic urban lifestyles. According to consulting firm Analysys, online personal services will continue to grow by 70 to 80 percent in the next three years.