China's third-tier and below cities account for 70% of the total population, with approximately 1 billion permanent residents in 300 prefecture-level cities and 2,800 counties, where they consume and grow.

Counties are becoming a place with opportunities

"I resigned, quit my five-figure monthly salary job, and now I'm farming in my hometown county."

Recently, a short video titled "Xiahou's vlog" suddenly went viral. He previously worked at a well-known automaker in Zhejiang. After resigning without notice, he chose to return to his hometown county and started growing cotton.

Like the content creator, in recent years counties have indeed become places with opportunities, attracting many young people to return home for employment and entrepreneurship.

58.com once conducted statistics showing that county entrepreneurship is dominated by family-style businesses, with 48.0% of entrepreneurs aged 26-35 and 30.9% aged 36-45, with young people being the main force in entrepreneurship.

County entrepreneurship is relatively concentrated in the tertiary industry, such as accommodation and catering, automobiles, and residential services, usually closely related to food, clothing, shelter, and transportation.

For example, Starbucks currently has over 6,800 stores nationwide, with approximately 33% located in third, fourth, and fifth-tier cities and other lower-tier regions, and will enter 70 new cities in 2025.

In 2021, KFC opened 1,232 new stores and entered 160 new towns, with more than half of the new stores located in lower-tier cities; during the pandemic, through community operations, it recruited over 3 million members.

With the promotion of a series of new energy vehicle policies, automakers have now set their sights on the lower-tier market, such as Tesla, Leapmotor, and Neta, which will be the next growth market in the new energy vehicle sector.

It is clear that all industries are filling consumption gaps in counties and tapping into their consumption potential.

While counties attract batch after batch of city "workers" with their strong momentum and enormous potential, they also show us the presence of young entrepreneurs who have been stationed in counties.

The "stationed garrison," becoming entrepreneurs

Lao Fang and Lao Liu are exactly what we call the "stationed garrison"—they have lived in small counties for many years and know this land better than anyone.

Lao Fang's home is in Yunxiao County on the southern coast of Fujian Province, a small county in Zhangzhou with a total population of about 411,600, once known as the "Holy Land of Zhangzhou's Founding"

He was once known as the "know-it-all" in the auto parts circle, having worked in the auto parts industry for over 30 years with extensive connections and accumulated resources from repair shops and suppliers.

With resources and experience in place, he directly joined the familiar "competitor"—Baturu platform, determined to expand in the small county of Yunxiao.

"Yunxiao may not look big, but there are over 200 repair shops of various sizes, and business is usually conducted through personal connections", and his hometown network played a significant role. Shortly after joining, he led his team to achieve over 400,000 yuan in monthly sales in Yunxiao County, with a market share as high as 75%.

Currently, Lao Fang has several stores in Yunxiao, with the largest store including a warehouse covering an area of over 1,500 square meters, making it one of the few large-scale stores in the area.

Last year, he and his partners acquired another franchise territory in Zhangzhou and continued to expand their business in their hometown.

Lao Liu from Beiliu City, Yulin, Guangxi, is a true 80s generation who has been a Baturu franchisee for nearly 5 years.

Initially, Lao Liu worked as a driver for a Baturu partner, responsible for logistics and delivery, working diligently every day and thus getting to know many repair shop customers.

Later, he saw the opportunity for county entrepreneurship and decided to start his own business as an auto parts partner. In 2020, with the model's evolution, he also upgraded to become a franchisee in Beiliu City. With more flexible autonomy and pricing rights for franchisees, he continued to push forward boldly.

In the first quarter of this year, his performance exploded with continuously rising revenues. He simply invited his sister to sign up for Rongjun County in Yulin, and the family expanded their business further to increase market share.

Lao Liu and Lao Fang are microcosms of county entrepreneurs, carrying their dreams in small counties.

Small markets, great potential

What market can a small county have?

Taking the automobile market scale as an example, per capita consumption levels in third, fourth, and lower-tier cities continue to rise, and vehicle purchase demand is gradually increasing. Research data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers shows that China's automobile industry's lower-tier market scale is approximately 20 trillion yuan.

The "2022-2023 China Automobile Distribution Industry Development Report" shows that as of the end of 2022, there are over 1,800 county economic entities nationwide, with 4S dealership networks accounting for nearly 20% of those located in them. In the new energy vehicle channel, over 60% of new energy vehicle brand networks are located in third to fifth-tier cities.

With the expansion of the automobile lower-tier market scale, increased 4S network layout density, and new energy vehicle growth, the automotive parts demand market is also developing rapidly.

It is clear that small markets have great potential.

This year, Baturu franchisee business will focus on developing the lower-tier county market, releasing 300+ franchise opportunities in county-level blank areas in provinces such as Hunan, Jiangxi, Guizhou, and Fujian, and providing special support for franchisee market expansion and operational strategies.

Support existing franchisees with strength to explore new county-level territories, equally enjoying fee discount policies and incentive policies(please contact your regional manager for details); secondly, for new franchisees, in addition to discount policies, Baturu has launched "franchisee-exclusive operational support" policies and incentive policies, providing franchisee support in market expansion and financing.

As the last-mile service network, the county market has strong explosive power. Franchisees have access to more open service resources, reaching more quality factories/brand merchants, while also serving as a key link in Baturu's supply chain, introducing more quality sources and customers, solving parts procurement needs for lower-tier market customers.

Policy dividends, market dividends, and talent dividends are all tilting toward counties, which are becoming the main battlefield for entrepreneurship.

For more franchise details, please consult via WeChat