"Internet + Countryside" should build "Troika"

A few days ago, Premier Li Keqiang organized an executive meeting of the State Council to discuss how to speed up the development of rural e-commerce. The meeting formed three resolutions, namely: deciding to improve the compensation mechanism for broadband telecommunications universal services in rural and remote areas, narrowing the digital gap between urban and rural areas, deploying to speed up the development of rural e-commerce, promoting consumption and benefiting the people's livelihood by strengthening new business type; and determining measures to promote the development of the express industry and cultivate new growth points of modern service industries.

This is not the first time the central government has issued an important policy to promote the development of the Internet in rural areas. From the "No. 1 document" at the beginning of the year, to the upsurge of "Internet +" after the two sessions, to the visits of central leaders to the "Taobao Village" in Zhejiang and Jiangsu, and the recent executive meeting of the State Council devoted to the development of rural e-commerce, "Internet + rural" is not only at a close pace, but also one step at a time, paying attention to practical results. Take this executive meeting of the State Council as an example, the economic transformation and upgrading of rural areas in the Internet era fell to three key points, namely broadband, rural e-commerce and express delivery. It should be said that these three "prescriptions" all hit the nail on the head.

The first is the level of broadband. As of December 2014, the number of rural Internet users in China reached 178 million, accounting for 27.5 percent of China's Internet users, down 1.1 percent from last year, according to the China Internet Information Center. In 2014, the Internet penetration rate in urban areas was 34 percentage points higher than that in rural areas, indicating that although the size of Internet users and Internet penetration in rural areas are growing, there is still a wide gap in Internet penetration between urban and rural areas and there is a risk of expansion.

Secondly, the network has entered the village, if farmers mainly use it to chat, play games and chase dramas, then the value of the Internet will be greatly underestimated. Only by developing rural e-commerce can its value be realized. Rural e-commerce should be viewed from the perspectives of consumption and sale. in terms of consumption, e-commerce is an excellent channel for farmers to upgrade their consumption and improve their lives, and achieve the purpose of stimulating domestic demand by stimulating rural consumption. it will be an important impetus for the transformation of the country's economic growth from export investment to consumption. In terms of sales, it has become common for farmers to start businesses and obtain employment through the Internet. for example, the number of "Taobao villages" reached 212 at the end of last year. Developing rural e-commerce and transforming farmers into online businesses is an important way for farmers to increase their income and become rich.

Third, although the prospect is infinitely good, it must be admitted that it is often more difficult to engage in e-commerce in rural areas than in cities, and one of the biggest shackles is rural express delivery. For logistics express enterprises, it is difficult for rural express delivery to make money, which is the fundamental reason why they are unable to invest a large number of troops in the rural market. Therefore, how to improve the volume of rural express delivery, including downlink distribution and uplink single delivery, is the fundamental solution of rural logistics.

These three points are interlinked and complement each other. Only with broadband Internet in rural areas is it possible to develop e-commerce; express delivery is not only a necessary condition for the development of rural e-commerce, but also the inevitable result of the development of rural e-commerce; rural express delivery without Internet is "water without source". The rural Internet without express delivery is a "bird without wings". Rural e-commerce is the most important link of this "tripod". With the internal drive of rural e-commerce, the problem of broadband or express delivery will be easily solved.

In this situation, the "e-commerce to the countryside" movement is ushering in its "golden era". For example, at present, the "thousands of counties and ten thousand villages" plan led by Ali has covered more than 5000 administrative villages, and the "Internet + rural" model of O2O has been welcomed by grass-roots farmers. JD.com 's rural agents are also said to have reached the size of 100000. In addition to Ali, JD.com, SUNING and other e-commerce giants, rural e-commerce platforms large and small across the country are also springing up like bamboo shoots after a spring rain. The golden age of "e-commerce going to the countryside", on the other hand, is also the golden age of rural economic transformation and upgrading. But for the local government, which route is the most suitable for them? this is a question that needs to be considered and identified.

There are two ways for local governments to develop e-commerce, one is to build their own e-commerce platform, and the other is to cooperate with existing e-commerce giants. Self-built e-commerce platform can fully achieve local autonomy, but it should also be noted that the self-built platform is not only expensive, but also very expensive for later maintenance and drainage. Therefore, the local self-built e-commerce platform generally does more harm than good. Cooperation between local governments and e-commerce giants is a better choice. It should be said that e-commerce giants have formed their own characteristics and have different advantages. Take Ali and JD.com as an example, Ali's advantage lies in its strong ecosystem. For example, its "thousands of counties and villages" plan integrates e-commerce, finance, logistics and other businesses, and has also accumulated more than 700000 sellers in rural areas. JD.com 's advantage lies in his own business, which mainly adopts a natural person-based development model in rural areas, which expands rapidly, while the upstream mainly through centralized procurement. It can be said that the major e-commerce giants, including Ali and JD.com, have formed their own characteristics and models, and local governments should cooperate according to local conditions, their own characteristics and needs, in order to better implement the requirements of the meeting of the State Council. speed up the development of rural e-commerce so that the common people can enjoy real benefits.