Guiyang announced that it will host the world's first competition for pain-point seekers, aiming to find social pain points, at a press conference held in Beijing on March 1.

"Pain-point seekers refers to those who identify social 'pain-points'," said Gao Weidong, vice mayor of the Guiyang municipal government.

Guiyang announced that it will host the world's first competition for pain-point seekers, aiming to find social pain points, at a press conference held in Beijing on March 1.[Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Pain-point seekers are able to find unmet societal demands among China's complicated social phenomena. These pain-points can bring opportunities for those who plan to start up their own companies.

For example, traffic jams?is a pain-point. Thus, the taxi-hailing App was a business opportunity. Review websites such as dianping.com have emerged from the pain-point that consumers are in need of word-of-mouth reviews of unfamiliar restaurants.

The Pain-point Seeker Plan is an attempt to solve pain-points by bringing together social talents such as pain-point seekers and social capital.

Through the Pain-point Seekers Plan, Guiyang expects to explore a brand new solution to meet unmet social demands.

Chen Gang, secretary of the Party's Guiyang Municipal Committee speaks at the press conference. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

"Pain-point seekers are an important driver for grassroots innovation," said Chen Gang, secretary of the Party's Guiyang Municipal Committee.

Guiyang will take advantage of its big data industry to build a platform for pain-point seekers and thus promote innovation.

"The Pain-point Seekers Plan will help entrepreneurs reduce risks because it helps them to find the real unmet social demands," said Chen.

Under the guidance of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC), the competition is cosponsored by the Guiyang municipal government and the Guizhou provincial administrative bureau for industry and commerce.

Hong Dan, deputy chief of the Enterprises Supervision Branch of the SAIC, noted that the competition will invite the public to identify pain-points to solve problems and promote companies' credit potential.

Based on the pain-point seekers platform, Guiyang will construct a "Pain-point Seekers Dream Factory" early this May. As a regular operation platform of the Pain-point Seekers Plan, the dream factory will incorporate social talents with capital to make sure the plan will be implemented.

"Without the pain-points collected from the pain-point seekers platform, many social innovations would not be practical," said Zhou Tao, professor at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China.

Guiyang has been improving its innovation environment in recent years. Thanks to its favorable policies, an increasing number of talents have chosen to reside and work in Guiyang. The Pain-point Seekers Plan will be another measure to add to the favorable policies.

The final of the competition will be held during the Guiyang International Big Data Industry Expo which will be held in the second half of May.