Alibaba wants to bring e-commerce to rural areas

Somewhere around 600 million people live in the Chinese countryside, and Alibaba has spent years trying to turn them into customers. The problem is, while e-commerce has been exploding in China’s urban areas, the logistical challenges of shipping products to rural areas, as well as the lower rate of internet usage in those areas, has made it difficult to tap into that vast pool of potential customers. That’s why Alibaba has joined forces with the Communist Youth League to train one million teenagers how to bring e-commerce to rural areas, and has set aside $154 million to support college graduates who want to return to their rural homes and establish their own e-commerce business.