Industry leaders and young entrepreneurs attend Shanghai's 1st Y50 Forum for Innovation and Entrepreneurship on April 25. [Photo/chinanews.com]

Guo Guangchang, president of Fosun International, Qi Shi, president of East Money, and Chen Rui, president and CEO of Bilibili, shared their experiences in developing enterprises amid the pandemic as representatives of the post-60s, post-70s, and post-80s eras, respectively.

Guo shared his views in the face of the crisis and discussed the measures taken by Fosun International relating to industrial accumulation, international cooperation, top-down design, and relationships between individuals and organizations.

He said one should take advantage of the market before a crisis hits – similar to repairing a roof when it is sunny, and taking advantage of current industrial resources to grasp new business opportunities during a crisis to meet customer needs.

Guo advised young entrepreneurs to do the right thing in line with the industrial mission, to carry out difficult tasks, to prepare for and invest in the future, and to be open for cooperation.

He said that sometimes a group or even an individual can make as many sales in a day as a listed company due to the online economy -- a new engine of economic growth. And the online economy has strong development potential in Shanghai.

The city issued a plan of action for developing the online economy in April and proposed becoming a domestic hub for the online economy with international influence by 2020. It aims to cultivate more than 100 high-growth innovative enterprises with international competitiveness, key technology, and independent intellectual property. The city also implemented regulations to promote the construction of a scientific and technological innovation center.

Qi concluded that there are three main characteristics of an online economy -- various platforms, emerging entrepreneurship opportunities, and iteration.

Chen said that in the 5G era, videos will become more mainstream and about 330 million young Chinese will consume around 66 percent of the content market.

During the epidemic, Bilibili's most valuable donation has been videos, not money or supplies, Chen said. As a leading domestic cultural community for youth, Bilibili used its platform and resources to encourage video providers to voice support for the fight against the virus, and he found that young video providers contributed most of the videos.

Enterprises engaged in the online economy are usually high risk and require a lot of investment, making it difficult for young people to gain a foothold in the industry. To this end, the city has been striving to connect finance with technology.

Shanghai has rolled out a series of measures to help enterprises deal with the crisis amid the epidemic. It has reduced fees and taxes to ease the burden on enterprises, encouraged state-owned innovation and entrepreneurship carriers to reduce rents for enterprises, and instructed financial institutions to help enterprises resume operations.

The Shanghai Municipal Commission of the Communist Youth League of China and the Municipal Youth Federation cooperated with the Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank to provide a green channel for young entrepreneurs and introduced a low-interest loan of 3 billion yuan ($423.01 million) to help companies resume operations.

The city continues to optimize its business environment and improve online government services for enterprises.

Gong Zheng, vice director of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee and acting mayor of Shanghai, attended the forum. He said the city is developing an open economic system and accelerating industrial upgrading in order to create a better business environment. He said the Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal People's Government will always support young innovators and entrepreneurs.

Zheng Gangmiao, member of the Standing Committee of the Municipal Party Committee, attended the forum, and Weng Zuliang, director of Pudong New District, delivered a keynote speech.