02:48
Boarding a flight for the first time in his life 10 years ago, Vinicius Batista de Oliveira from San Paulo, Brazil, took a long journey flying all the way to China to start his two-year study at Central China Normal University in Wuhan City.
Ten years later, he is still in China, has finished his master's degree at Beihang University, and is working for a company that he founded aiming to bring the e-commerce model back to Brazil.
"I noticed in China, every month, you can see such a huge difference. New buildings, new technology developments," Oliveira said while describing the changes in transportation, technology and lifestyle that he witnessed, and decided to bring what he learned in China back to his home country.
He is among the many international students from around the world who studied in China and then became dedicated to being a bridge between their home countries and China, bringing the knowledge back home in hope of boosting the development of their respective countries.
"It kind of became like a life mission, I really wanted to contribute to Brazil to develop," he said.
He believes that China's rising "live commerce" model, which is currently a trendy shopping model through which customers can purchase commodities through bloggers' livestreaming on platforms like Douyin (TikTok in China), is something that can be adapted to Brazil's market.
I'm really happy to be that bridge to help Brazilian companies to understand Chinese models and adapt them to Brazil, he said.