PDF《Taobao Villages》

Taobao Villages The Emergence of a New Pattern of Rural Ecommerce in China and its Social Implications Fan Lulu Taobao Villages The Emergence of a New Pattern of Rural Ecommerce in China and its Social Implications Fan Lulu February

2019 This discussion paper is based on the research project Employment conditions and changes of work in Taobao Villages Principal Investigator: Prof.

Boy Luethje, Volkswagen Endowed Chair Industrial Relations and Social Development, School of Government, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, P.R. China The research was supported by Volkswagen Group China

3 Foreword

4 Executive Summary

5 Introduction

6 1. The development of Alibaba and Taobao.com

7 1.1 Start-up (1999-2003)

7 1.2 Growth (2004C2007)

7 1.3 Maturity (since 2008)

7 2. Reasons behind the success of Alibaba and Taobao.com

9 3. The concept of Taobao villages, their whereabouts and specialties

10 4. The emergence of Taobao villages and driving factors

12 5. Employment in Taobao villages

13 6. The impact of Taobao villages on rural economy and society

19 7. Policy recommendations on reducing the negative impact of Taobao villages on labor

22 8. Suggestions to other countries interested in developing Taobao villages

23 References

24 Notes

27 Contents

4 Foreword Ecommerce has become increasingly important in Asia, particularly in China, where it is making an increasingly important contribution to the service sector, which itself has grown to

56 per cent of the total GDP. Taobao (Chinese: ;

approximate English translation: digging for treasure or treasure hunt ) is a Chinese online shopping website and ecommerce platform, headquartered in Hangzhou, East China. Founded by Alibaba Group in 2003, Taobao and its sister website Tmall facilitate both Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) and Business-to-Consumer (B2C) retail commerce by providing a platform for businesses large and small as well as individual entrepreneurs to open online stores. It mainly caters to consumers in Chinese- speaking regions (Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan) and has had over

580 million monthly active users in 2018. The enormous amounts of data thus collected (such as user interests and shopping trends) fuel the algorithms of the platform itself as well as the services and research into artificial intelligence applications of its parent company Alibaba, which is one of China'

s three online giants besides Baidu and Tencent. China'

s countryside remains a crucial part of the country'

s economic (success) story as over

40 per cent of its population is still rural. But Chinese urban-rural inequality is quite high - like in many other countries. Against this background the growing number of so-called Taobao villages has been identified by Alibaba and the Chinese government as a potential solution to reduce the growing urban-rural divide. While Taobao villages contribute to the economic development of rural areas in China, they need to be analysed critically, especially because of the contradictions between the typically low-cost mode of production of most goods sold in Taobao shops and the priorities of local governance. First, Taobao shops pay almost no taxes and second, they often do not apply basic labour and safety standards. Also, most of them operate informally and the workers therefore rarely have social security. While some observers in China highlight that the Taobao shop workers earn more than they would in factories, others warn against the emergence of rural sweatshops 4.0 . These contradictions need to be further analysed by collecting and analysing data as well as assessing the situation of Taobao shops on site, which this study aims to do. But if the negative aspects of Taobao villages can be mitigated, they might not be merely an interesting development programme for rural and remote areas in China, but also in other Asian countries. In Indonesia for example, the government puts a lot of emphasis on reducing the development gap between cities and villages to improve people'