Taobao’s “Qian Xian Wan Cun” Plan (“Thousand Counties, Ten Thousand Villages” Plan)

千县万村计划 淘宝
Taobao’s “Qian Xian Wan Cun” Plan (“Thousand Counties, Ten Thousand Villages” Plan)

First launched at the first Zhejiang county-region E-Commerce summit on Oct 13th, 2014, Alibaba’s Qian Xian Wan Cun plan is the company’s latest move to digitalize rural China. According to the plan, they will be investing10 billion RMB in the establishment of 1,000 country-level operating centers and 100,000 village-level service stations over the next 3-5 years. The 2nd summit was held in Guangdong 14 days later on Oct 27th (Guangdong Province has the 2nd highest number of Taobao villages according to the report on Taobao Village by Ali Report, released at the end of 2014). 1

The People’s Government of Tonglu County (a part of Hangzhou, China) officially signed the “Village Development Strategy’s Pilot Project in Tonglu” aggrement with Alibaba. From this, Tonglu officially became the first stop of Alibaba’s plan. 2

The first Taobao village-level service station began operating in Duji, Tonglu on Oct 29th.

How does the plan work?
Each service station is a franchise. The local village men contact Taobao voluntarily. They need to provide the physical space at which the service station will operate. After the contract is signed, Taobao promises to fund the station owner and pay for all the initial cost of transformation.

What services do the stations offer?
Online Purchasing on the village people’s behalf
Online selling on the village people’s behalf
Online payment
Entrepreneurial courses and training
Local Life (??)

Who are the targeted beneficiaries of these service stations?
Village locals who (one or more of the followings):
do not own computers
do not know how to use a computer
do not know how to make purchases online
do not know how to set up an online store on Taobao
do not know how to list items for sale on Taobao
do not know how to pay bills on Taobao

Notes:

1) “千县万村计划”，《百度百科》， “http://baike.baidu.com/link?url=p0-gryBDEhy4xHZX8Cq9_LhyTLKgwqtxkH339MR6Y8JbXfa6dLP8VW1PhiItQV5SbGFBE35qOAKM54PDuWZq8a”

2) “阿里“农村淘宝”：村民不必会电脑”, 《驱动之家》，Nov 18th, 2014. “http://news.mydrivers.com/1/327/327720.htm”