An extraordinary must read from the New Yorker on how JD.com has expanded its consumer base with drone delivery and local recruits who exploit villages’ tight-knit social networks vs. online adverts to drum up business.
In 2009, he bought his first smartphone. Not many of his friends knew much about the Internet in those days, but Xia’s eyes were opened: “Everything that was going on in China could be squeezed onto that screen.”
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/07/23/how-e-commerce-is-transforming-rural-china