The number of rural service centers soared more than eightfold since the end of June 2015, alizila.com reports. In 2014, Alibaba announced an investment of USD 1.6 billion (CNY 10 billion) to build 100.000 service centers in rural areas in China in three to five years.
Ecommerce orders placed by rural consumers or placed with rural sellers resulted in the delivery of more than 7 billion packages in 2015, up from 4.5 billion the previous in 2014, according to AliResearch, the source cites. Meanwhile, gross merchandise volume (GMV) generated through e-tailers located in 832 impoverished counties increased 81% in 2015 to USD 3.3 billion (CNY 21.56 billion). Mobile GMV also accounted for more than 60% of total GMV generated by rural consumers in 2015.
The development of a channel for the online sale of agricultural products from provinces including Shandong, Guizhou and Shaanxi, aided by improved logistics, was launched in 2015 and allows farmers to sell organic and other produce to urban buyers on a pre-order basis. GMV of agricultural products sold on Alibaba platforms by residents of less-developed counties grew 65% in 2015.
Ant Financial, a fintech affiliate to Alibaba, is also offering online payments, insurance products and small loans to farmers through Alibaba’s rural service centers. Some 120 million rural residents bought insurance through Ant in 2015, while 20 million took out business loans. Alibaba also announced the launch of a new rural initiative called “smart county”, through which Alibaba Cloud and Ant Financial will provide technical support to local governments as well as access to public services. The programme is currently being tested in small cities in Shandong, Zhejiang, and Guizhou provinces.
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