How China’s internet boom is creating new jobs in the country’s rural areas
With the development of China’s broadband infrastructure as well as rapid adoption of online shopping and mobile payments, the rural areas are shaping up to become the next engine of growth for the world’s largest e-commerce market
When Luo Zhaoliu decided a year ago to quit his job in Shenzhen, the southern coastal city striving to be the Silicon Valley of China, he joined other aspiring entrepreneurs who are pushing the country’s digital revolution into the next frontier for innovation and productivity: the rural areas.
Luo, 34, returned to his hometown, a remote village in Wan’an county in the southeastern province of Jiangxi, to start a business making fermented bean curd, following nine years as a research and development engineer at a company that made components for electric cars.
He established a small factory, recruited middle-aged and older people from his village as employees, and set out to sell the Chinese condiment nationwide through major online retail platforms.
It is a venture that showed how China’s internet revolution and advances in technology have started to open opportunities for entrepreneurs in rural areas to build viable businesses, while creating new jobs to revitalise local communities, he said.
Luo’s efforts are a reminder of the disparity in development that still remains between China’s big cities and rural areas, where employment opportunities are scarce and many residents have to find work in urban areas to support their families, which they have to leave behind.
With the development of China’s broadband infrastructure as well as rapid adoption of online shopping and mobile payments, the rural areas are shaping up to become the next engine of growth for the world’s largest e-commerce market.