China's Henan province has made headlines since it was hit with torrential rains, which left people dead, missing and severely affected.
With donations, supplies and condolences rolling in, Chinese enterprises are setting a positive example.
One of them is Chinese sportswear company Erke, which made a donation of 50 million yuan ($7.7 million) to provide supplies for flood relief and aid. After the company made the announcement on its social media platform, Sina Weibo, on Wednesday, it received widespread support.
By Wednesday at noon, the post had about 10 million likes and over 270,000 comments, most of them expressing respect and support for the company.
What made the company's donation impressive and led it to go viral is the fact that the donation is a big sum for the company, considering that Erke's business didn't seem to develop very smoothly during the past few years.
One of the comments left by a netizen called Baibutao ranked at the top under the topic. "It feels like you're going out of business and you donated so much," the netizen wrote.
"The company has been keeping a low-profile. It's certainly a good deed, which deserves to be seen by more people," wrote another netizen.
On Thursday night, the company's live streaming channel on Taobao, Alibaba's e-commerce platform, attracted over 2 million people, which was a big increase from its usual number of viewers—mostly less than 10,000 people. The company sold products worth more than 10 million yuan during the live streaming on Taobao. On another social media platform, Douyin, it sold over 15 million yuan that night, according to statistics by Huitun, a Hangzhou-based company offering research and analysis services on live streaming e-commerce.
The heat continued on Friday night when the company's live streaming channel on Taobao attracted over 7.5 million people. As of midnight early Saturday, it sold over 50 million yuan, exceeding the sales figure of Wei Ya, a top-selling livestreaming host, which also sold products on her live streaming channel on Taibao that night.
Wu Rongzhao, chief executive of Erke, appeared on the live streaming channel that day, expressing his gratitude to the viewers.
"Thanks to you, Erke has made headlines and we've received lots of warm messages. I want to thank all of you and let's be together to help Henan," said Wu. "I am deeply touched by your feedback. We will continue to do a good job in bringing out products and services." He also told netizens to consume rationally during the live streaming.
The company, founded in 2000 and headquartered in Xiamen, East China's Fujian province, has over 7,000 branch companies around the world. Wu said in an early interview that the company started from a small factory in Jinjiang, known as the "footwear capital", in Fujian province.
However, compared to other Chinese sportswear enterprises, which have attracted many consumers, especially the younger generations, Erke has experienced a downturn in market competition during the past few years.
In 2020, the company's revenue was 2.8 billion yuan, which fell behind Chinese sportswear brands, such as Li-Ning, which, founded by the champion gymnast Li Ning in 1990, sold 14.4 billion yuan of goods in 2020 and Anta Sports, founded in 1991, which sold 35.5 billion yuan in merchandise last year.
While showing their respect to Erke's strong sense of social responsibility, netizens also called on the company to do more marketing to increase their sales.
One netizen left messages for Wu, giving suggestions to the company's products' design and marketing strategy.
"The company's donation to Henan deserves respect. As a consumer, I suggest that your products need simpler design in its looks. For the colors, you can lower the saturation. The quality of the photos of your products also need to be higher," the netizen wrote.
"What you said is very professional. We used to focus on the quality of the products, hoping to give the consumers better experiences of wearing our products. We also will work hard on the design. We welcome you to join us if you work in this field," Wu replied.
It's not the first time the company has been lauded for its social responsibility. In March, claims made by some foreign brands, including H&M and Nike, that they refuse to use Xinjiang cotton due to the alleged use of "forced labor" in the region triggered a strong backlash from the Chinese public.
Erke was among many Chinese enterprises to show support to Xinjiang-grown cotton. The company not only announced its products are made of Xinjiang-grown cotton but also invested in advertisements in public places, such as subway stations and airports, to back up Xinjiang cotton.
"It is important for us to show our attitude at such a critical moment," Wu said.