Economic Geography Study on the Formation of Taobao Village: Taking
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Economic Geography Vol. 35, No. 12, 90–97 Dec. 2015 Study on the formation of Taobao Village: taking Dongfeng Village and Junpu Village as examples ZENG Yiwu1, QIU Dongmao1, SHEN Yiting2, GUO Hongdong1 1. The Center for Agriculture and Rural Development, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, Zhejiang, China; 2. Information Center, Zhejiang Radio & Television University, Hangzhou 310030, Zhejiang, China Abstract: Based on typical cases of Dongfeng Village and Junpu Village, this paper analyzed the formation of Taobao Village. It is found that the formation of Taobao Village includes five processes: introduction of Taobao projects, primary diffusion, accelerated diffusion, collective cooperation and vertical agglomeration. They can be reduced into two stages. In the first stage, the germination and initial development of Taobao Village only rely on the folk spontaneous forces; secondly, the government begins to intervene, the e-commerce association is set up, and all kinds of service providers are stationed in the village. To speed up the formation of those embryonic Taobao Villages, the government’s support is necessary, and the key point is intensifying scientific guidance and service ability, and improving supply level of public goods timely. To cultivate more new Taobao Villages, some incubation measures can be taken, such as reinforcing infrastructure construction, enhancing the cost advantage of rural entrepreneurship, excavating the potential of local traditional industries, and encouraging some migrant workers of the new generation and university graduates to return. Keywords: E-commerce, farmer entrepreneurship, Taobao Village, Internet plus CLC number: F320, F724.6 As the typical product of “Internet + rural economy,” and Donggao Village of Qinghe County of Hebei Province. professional e-commerce village is drawing more and more Since then, the development pace of Taobao Villages has attention. Professional e-commerce village refers to a gradually accelerated. According to statistics, the number of village in which a large number of farmers engage in online Taobao Villages in China has grown to 212 by December selling activities through e-commerce platform and the 2014.These Taobao Villages are mainly found in ten Internet-based business makes up the main economic provinces, including Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu activity of the village. With the advantages of low entry and Tianjin.[2] barriers, less technical difficulties and initial capital The rise of Taobao Villages is significant to promoting requirement, and so on, Taobao owned by Alibaba has entrepreneurship, employment and income growth of become the main platform for farmers to participate in farmers, as well as rural economic transformation and e-commerce.[1] It is because that current rural e-commerce upgrading, social harmony and stability. According to business mainly uses Taobao as the trading platform, statistics, there are more than 70,000 active sellers in those depending on the e-commerce ecosystem of Taobao, people 212 Taobao Villages. According to the operating features of name these professional e-commerce villages “Taobao rural e-commerce, the direct employment created by Taobao Villages.” To count the amount of Taobao Villages in China, Villages is as much as 280,000 and even more, calculated in AliResearch has developed two quantitative criteria: one is a way that about four practitioners in each online store.[2] that the number of active online stores of the village is over Besides, it leads to the occurrence of a large number of 100 or more than 10% of local households; the other is the full-time relevant positions, such as logistics and total e-commerce transactions of the whole village reach warehousing, packaging design, graphic model, advertising CNY 10 million annually. According to these standards, the design, technical training and management consulting. The earliest Taobao Villages appeared in 2009, including great development of Taobao Villages benefits from the Qingyanliu Village of Yiwu City of Zhejiang Province, organic combination between Taobao and local traditional Dongfeng Village of Suining County of Jiangsu Province industries, which has injected new vitality into local ______________________________________ Received: June 15, 2015 About the authors: ZENG Yiwu (1988– ), male, born in Jieyang, Guangdong, China; Doctoral Candidate, majoring in rural industrial cluster and rural e-commerce; E-mail: [email protected]. GUO Hongdong (1968– ), male, born in Pujiang, Zhejiang; Professor, Doctoral Supervisor, Zhejiang University; majoring in agricultural industrial organization, farmer entrepreneurship and rural e-commerce; E-mail: [email protected]. Supported by: National Natural Science Foundation of China (71473218, 71333011); “Alibaba Young Scholar Support Program” the fifth project topic. © 2015 China Academic Journals (CD Edition) Electronic Publishing House Co., Ltd. Economic Geography 2015: 35(12) traditional industries and effectively promoted the growth of network traders of Taobao Village through transformation and upgrading of traditional industries in empirical analysis.[1] rural areas. In addition, the development of Taobao Villages Existing literature has provided materials and references has also changed the ideas, knowledge structure, for this study. Regarding the formation mechanism of commercial thinking and consumer behavior of farmers. Taobao Village, the present research is conducted from the However, compared with the huge totality of villages in perspective of influential factors, while only briefly China, the current number of Taobao Villages is rather small describes the dynamic process of the formation. This paper and their geographical distribution is uneven. In some attempts to reveal the formation laws of Taobao Villages provinces there are many Taobao Villages, while in others from the perspective of process, simplifies and refines the there are just a few or even none. To cultivate more Taobao formation process of Taobao Villages on the basis of typical Villages, it is necessary to study the specific formation of cases, and analyzes the mechanism in each process of the Taobao Villages. Since Taobao Village is new, relevant formation, which may lead to a clearer perspective of the academic research has just started, and papers analyzing the phenomenon of Taobao Village. formation of Taobao Village are still very rare. Therefore, it’s full of positive literature value and practical significance 1.2 Research upon the formation mechanism of to study the mechanism and laws from the formation professional village process of Taobao Villages, which is “from nothing to Taobao Village is a kind of professional e-commerce something and from point to surface.” Based on the review village which uses Taobao as a major trading platform. of relevant literature, this paper will analyze the formation Essentially, it has the general features of professional process of Taobao Villages and draw some enlightenment e-commerce village. Those existing research achievements on the basis of two typical cases, Dongfeng Village and about the formation mechanism of professional village can Junpu Village. provide enlightenment for the analysis of formation of Taobao Villages. Professional village began with the “One 1 Literature review Village, One Product” mode of production in Japan, which was later introduced into China, South Korea, Thailand, Nepal and other countries in succession,[7-8] because it 1.1 Direct literature relevant to Taobao Village played a special role in promoting farmers’ income and The existing research regarding Taobao Village is mainly accelerating structural adjustment in rural areas and other organized and carried out by AliResearch. In December aspects.[6] Existing research on the formation mechanism of 2014, AliResearch released the Report of China’s Taobao professional village mainly focuses on three parts: the first Village (2014). The report summarized and analyzed the is the factors that influence the formation of professional development status of China’s Taobao Villages in 2014 and village. Studies have proved that professional village is the predicted the developmental trend of Taobao Villages in the product of interaction of many factors, mainly including future.[2] In February 2015, the book China’s Taobao Village local resource endowments and potential, geographical by AliResearch was published. It introduces vividly the location, entrepreneurial genius, economic base, traditional development stories of 14 typical Taobao Villages in culture and customs, and policy support.[9-12] The second detail.[3] Wang Xiangdong, from Center for Informatization consideration is about the spatial diffusion during the Study in Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, has formation of professional village. The formation of researched into several typical cases of Taobao Villages in professional village is a process where a new project collaboration with AliResearch. They focus on summarizing spreads in space from the limited source region through the characteristics, significance and evolutionary trend of susceptible crowd. Spatial diffusion has the characteristics Shaji pattern.[4] Wu Xiaobo, from School of Management in of proximity effect, hierarchical effect and distance Zhejiang University, has a collaborative research with decay.[13] Moreover, the speed of spatial diffusion is also AliResearch about inclusive innovation and growth influenced by geographical environment, diffusion mechanism