How to seize the digital countryside? Dialogue with Li Shaohua, Vice President of Ali Group

In more than 2,000 counties across the country, he had in-depth exchanges with leaders of more than 700 counties.

He is Li Shaohua (alias Kublai Khan), vice president of Alibaba Group and general manager of Digital Village and Regional Economic Development Division.

Twenty-six years ago, Li Shaohua discussed the transfer and transformation of rural labor force in his undergraduate thesis. Today, he has found another solution to rural revitalization in Alibaba.

In an interview with Tianxia.com, Li Shaohua said that his communication with county leaders all over the country made him very aware of the urgent expectations and specific needs of local digital villages.

"After the 19th National Congress, the two major strategies put forward by the Central Committee are' Digital China' and' Rural Revitalization', and' Digital Village' is the superposition of the two national strategies." Li Shaohua said that Ali's strategic layout in rural areas has a long history, from rural Taobao to digital villages. Last year, the Digital Rural Laboratory and Alibaba Agricultural Office were established, and Ali's investment in agriculture, rural areas and farmers has been upgraded year by year.

Li Shaohua has been in charge of Alibaba's rural strategic business for the past two years. Not long ago, Ali's rural strategy was upgraded to domestic demand strategy, and the Digital Village and Regional Economic Development Division was established. The vision of this business department is to build a "digital intelligence engine" for county governments and help farmers achieve a yield of $0/000 per mu through digital technology.

"With 20 years of digital accumulation, Ali actively explores the combination of its own advantages and the national digital rural strategy. This road will definitely be difficult to walk, but it will be very happy to participate. " Li Shaohua said that the whole society has made Ali, and Ali will also give back to urban and rural development with its own advantages.

Reporter: For the outside world, Ali's e-commerce is more intense. What is the positioning of Alibaba Group's digital rural business? What is the vision of this business?

Li Shaohua: Digital Village is an upgraded version of Ali's rural strategy. Its business orientation is to empower the government, especially to help the district and county governments to better implement the national strategy of digital villages. We sort the government's demands into three aspects: scientific decision-making, digital industry and digital governance, and mainly provide Ali's digital capabilities to specific districts and counties in the form of products and services around these three major sectors.

Our vision is to become a county digital service provider and a digital intelligent operator, and use data and wisdom to build a digital engine for rural revitalization.

Reporter: Digital rural construction is a national strategy with many participants. Compared with other participants, what is Ali's housekeeping skill?

Li Shaohua: The three major demands of local governments I just mentioned have two ends: one is to help local governments solve the problems of industry and supply chain and provide comprehensive empowerment from production to sales; The second is to provide digital capabilities.

Colleagues often only have one of them. I think Ali has combined the above two, which is our greatest advantage.

Reporter: How does Ali's digital village solution work with Ali's business?

Li Shaohua: The construction of digital countryside can be understood as an entrance for Ali to help the digitalization of the county, and it is also a hub (center) for the county government to connect Ali's digitalization ability.

We hope to empower Ali's various digital capabilities to the government. For example, the digital industry plate uses the technology of Alibaba Cloud pedestal on a large scale. At the same time, we will also integrate Ali's many e-commerce and other retail businesses in the supply system, including Box Horse Fresh Life, Taobao and Tmall. We will also cooperate with 1688 and AE (AliExpress) in specific industries in the county. Nail is our technology provider in digital governance.

In a word, digital rural commerce is a new window to reflect the synergistic effect of Ali's economy and ecology.

Reporter: What kind of team is Ali's digital village? What drives you?

Li Shaohua: Many people in our team have a sense of mission and responsibility when doing digital rural business. As the team knows, after the 19th National Congress, the central government put forward two national strategies for the next 20 years, one is digital China, the other is rural revitalization, and the digital village is the superposition of the two national strategies. The gap between urban and rural areas must and will be bridged by digital technology.

Last June, we established the Digital Rural Laboratory. At that time, some people were very disdainful of this practice. For a booming technology company, rural projects are not high compared with other commercial projects. However, we know that this work must be done and must be done with the latest digital thinking. And with our understanding of Ali's comprehensive digital ability, these tasks can be done well.

In addition, in my core team, the proportion of * * * in party member is very high. Now there are seven students who report directly to me, five of whom are party member. At that time, we didn't have this requirement when recruiting personnel.

In my opinion, it is the foundation of team members to integrate personal development into the national strategy and transcend the business feelings of home country.

Reporter: When you were doing digital rural business in Ali, you must have contacted many county leaders. What do they have in common?

Li Shaohua: I'm from the county seat, too. When I was a child, I often worked in the fields. Now that my parents are in the county, I have a natural affinity for the county. Since I was in charge of Ali Digital Village Business Department, I have contacted the main leaders of more than 700 counties, and now I know them very well. They all want to use the power of the Internet to bridge the digital divide between urban and rural areas.

Reporter: When did you start to pay attention to the issues concerning agriculture, countryside and farmers?

Li Shaohua: Twenty-six years ago, my college graduation thesis was about the transfer and transformation of rural labor force. Miraculously, now I have been in charge of rural strategy for two years in a leading Internet company in the world, and I have found the golden key to digitally empowering county development, and found a new answer for the paper of that year.

Reporter: What is the ideal digital village?

Li Shaohua: In the future digital countryside, a series of convenient services such as rural governance and supporting industries should be digitized. These data can better serve enterprises and ordinary people and increase the happiness index of residents. Within us, this is called full service data, full data service.

The utility of data is that government officials rule the world's mobile phones; For enterprises, data will drive business development; For ordinary people, data makes our lives happier.

On July 17, Hunan Digital Village Summit and the promotion activity of "Xiangpin Online Tour" were held in Xixi Park, Alibaba, Hangzhou. During the promotion meeting, the Digital Village and Regional Economic Development Division of Alibaba Group signed a digital village framework cooperation agreement with the governments of Liling City, Nanxian County and Guidong County of Hunan Province.

Li Shaohua: Not only intellectuals, but also many revolutionaries have done a lot of rural research and ideal rural experiments, which are of great reference significance. Today, one hundred years later, let's look at the digital village again. I think it is not the behavior of a single enterprise, nor the awakening of a single young intellectual, but the strategic behavior at the national level, which is the fundamental difference from a series of experiments a hundred years ago. After a hundred years of exploration, digital village has become a national strategy to fundamentally solve the problems of agriculture, countryside and farmers.

It took Ali 20 years to fully accumulate the supply system, data technology, and even the big data of the whole social and economic operation. The times have created Ali, and we will serve the construction of digital villages with our own advantages and technology accumulation, which is a better way for enterprises to give back to society.