Present Situation and Problems of Application of New Media in Rural E-commerce: A Case Study of Anhui Province

Shuhua CAO, Yujun HU, Peijun FU

School of Business, Anhui Wenda University of Information Engineering, Hefei 230032, China

Abstract The application of new media technology in rural areas of China provides more convenient conditions for agricultural products publicity, transaction information dissemination and user feedback. In particular, e-commerce platform based on Internet technology provides more convenient sales channels for characteristic agricultural products. Through the research on the application of new media technology in rural areas of Anhui Province, this paper explores the actual effect of new media technology on the development of rural e-commerce. The questionnaire survey is used to understand the development status of new media in rural areas of China. They are: the development of "Internet government affairs" has begun to take shape; the official account of WeChat has shortened the time and space between the production and consumption of agricultural products. Live interaction gives full play to the powerful role of fan economy; digital media has not been widely used. Through the form of on-the-spot visits, this paper expounds the application effect of new media in the agricultural field of Anhui Province from three perspectives of the government, agricultural enterprises and farmers. It analyzes the problems existing in the application of new media in rural e-commerce in Anhui Province. They are: the new media market is still full of problems; The infrastructure construction of rural e-commerce is relatively poor; Farmers lack the guidance of professional talents; farmers’ acceptance and learning ability is poor. The paper puts forward suggestions for the development status and problems of new media in rural areas of Anhui Province. They are: the provincial government should continue to promote the new media market order; all e-commerce enterprises should actively undertake social responsibility; rural e-commerce entrepreneurs should actively promote professional operation; farmers should actively change their views on new media.

Key words New media, Rural e-commerce, Farmer e-commerce, Anhui Province

1 Introduction

1.1 Research background

With the rapid development of digital economy, new media, represented by the Internet, is widely used in various industries. The unique status of new media in social development has also been generally recognized by the society. At the same time, it is also changing the basic necessities of life for the public. According to the 46

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(CNNIC), as of June 2020, the number of Internet users in China was 940 million, 36.25 million more than in March 2020; the Internet penetration rate reached 67.0%, an increase of 2.5 percentage points over March 2020. China’s agriculture is in a critical stage of transition to modernization, and the digital, interactive and cross-time-space characteristics of the new media are bound to provide a broader space for the development of rural modernization.

At present, the application of new media technology in China’s rural areas is still in the primary stage of development, facing many problems. Overall, the problems faced by the application of new media technology in rural areas can be divided into subjective and objective aspects. Subjectively, farmers’ awareness of e-commerce is still relatively weak, because farmers’ education level is relatively low, and their enthusiasm and acceptance of new things are not high. The objective aspect is that the infrastructure in rural areas is relatively backward and the conditions are poor. At the same time, the market order of new media still needs to be improved. In the name of "rural" and "organic", some unscrupulous businessmen deceive consumers with defective or even fake goods, resulting in damage to the reputation and image of products with rural characteristics.

1.2 Purpose and significance of the study

Rural e-commerce is based on the popularization of information technology and logistics technology, and its development is conducive to promoting the upgrading of agricultural industry, thus effectively reducing the gap between urban and rural areas. As a product of the development of media technology, new media provides convenient conditions for agricultural product publicity, transaction information dissemination and user feedback. Therefore, the research on the application of new media technology in the development of rural e-commerce is of great significance for us to promote rural revitalization and consolidate the achievements of poverty alleviation. On the basis of an overview of the new media, this paper expounds the application effect of the new media in the rural areas, analyzes the problems and puts forward the corresponding measures. The purpose of this paper is to promote the application of new media in rural e-commerce, so as to promote rural development, agricultural progress and make farmers become better off.

2 Basic concept and development of new media

2.1 Overview of new media

2.1.1

The meaning and characteristics of new media. In a broad sense, new media can be divided into two categories: one is a media form budding due to technological progress, especially based on wireless communication technology and network technology, such as digital TV, IPTV (Internet Protocol Television), and mobile phone terminal; the other is a media form which existed before, but now is used as the carrier of information dissemination with the change of people’s way of life, such as building TV, and car TV. In a narrow sense, new media only refers to the first kind of media form based on technological progress. The media forms are also diversified with the birth of new technologies. Internet TV, webcasts and e-readers

etc.

transplant the content of traditional media to new media platforms.

It can be concluded that the greatest feature of new media is to break down the barriers between time and space, media and audiences, and truly realize "undifferentiated" communication.

2.1.2

The scope and types of new media. At the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18CPC Central Committee, General Secretary Xi Jinping put forward the important idea of "relying on network to make China powerful". Under the guidance of this important thought, the new media platform represented by the Internet has ushered in a historic opportunity for development. As of June 2020, the Internet penetration rate in China’s urban areas was 76.4%, which was basically the same as that in March 2020; the Internet penetration rate in rural areas was 52.3%, an increase of 6.1 percentage points over March 2020. The difference in Internet penetration between urban and rural areas has narrowed by 6.3 percentage points (Fig.1). The telecom universal service pilot project has supported the access to optical fiber networks and the construction of tens of thousands of 4G base stations in more than 130 000 administrative villages.

Fig.1 Internet penetration rate in urban and rural areas

At present, new media applications are also dazzling, including mobile TV, social networking software, network,

etc.

Therefore, the new media is regarded as the "fifth media" except the four traditional media, namely, newspapers, out-of-home media, radio and television.

2.2 Application status of new media in rural areas of Anhui Province

2.2.1

The development of "Internet government" has begun to take shape. A search of the Anhui Provincial Government on microblog on March 28, 2021 found that provincial and municipal official microblog had been registered (Fig.2). Among them, the official blog of the People’s Government of Anhui Province has the largest number of followers, and the content released recently is the issue of "vegetable basket" closely related to farmers, and because of this, official blog has become one of the main platforms for farmers to participate in political life. At the same time, government websites at all levels have been successfully established, and farmers can seek advice or information from these platforms at any time.

Fig.2 Example of official blog at provincial and municipal level in Anhui

2.2.2

The emergence of WeChat official account shortens the space-time distance between production and consumption of agricultural products. Nowadays, the original health-preserving agricultural products have gripped many consumers, but the Internet information is so much that it is difficult to tell the true from the false. Without the help of professionals, consumers are very worried that they will buy fake goods. In this case, some official accounts were born. Searching official WeChat account for special farm products in Anhui Province on March 28, 2021, we found that there were many official accounts about special farm products (Fig.3). These accounts can provide free consultation services for consumers, let consumers understand the whole process from product development, production and processing to sale, reduce consumers’ doubts and expand the scope of sale, thereby reducing the operating cost and increasing the income of farmers.

Fig.3 Example of official account of special farm products in Anhui Province

2.2.3

Live interaction gives full play to the strong role of fan economy. With the popularity of online shopping, consumers find that the biggest gap between online stores and brick and mortar stores is that they are unable to experience the products directly. In this context, live commerce appears on the stage. We searched Taobao for Anhui specialties and found more than 200 results. Most of businesses participated in the live streaming. The base and number of followers of these businesses are not as good as those online celebrities, but they still use live commerce to increase their income because of the huge profit space hidden behind. During the live streaming, the streamer interacts with followers to guide their consumption, which can create new consumption power.

2.2.4

Digital media is not widely available. As the future of the development of media technology, digital media technology has attracted the attention of industry giants, but there is no substantial development of digital media technology in rural areas. During the visit, we found that most farmers do not know what digital media is, and they show not much sense of identity to digital media. In addition, the pricey digital media does not meet the actual needs of farmers. The Internet and mobile phones also replace the digital media in rural areas to a certain extent.

2.3 Application effect of new media in the field of agriculture in Anhui Province

The application effect of new media in the field of agriculture in Anhui Province was studied through the combination of on-the-spot visits and online investigation in Huangshan City, Anhui Province from the perspectives of the government, agriculture-related enterprises and farmers.

2.3.1

New media application effect of Anhui Provincial Government. In order to meet the actual needs of the broad masses of farmers, Anhui Provincial Government has created a unified agricultural information website of the whole province——"Anhui Agricultural Information Network" after several years of practice.The website has sections including Popular Science, Agricultural Guidance, Message,

etc.

Many farmers ask questions on pest prevention on the site and get timely reply (Fig.4).

Fig.4 Example of Message of Anhui Agricultural Information Network

The website also set up an information exchange section, on which farmers can publish product information and leave contact information, and if users happen to have the corresponding needs, they can contact each other to conclude a deal. The content of the website is various, which can effectively reduce the difficulty of reading and be more easily accepted by farmers. As it is an official website and does not charge any fees, this type of portal is favored by more and more people related to agriculture, rural areas and farmers.

However, the website also has some shortcomings, such as obvious news lag. The supply and demand and market conditions can basically be updated in time, but the update of information in weather forecast and seasonal prevention obviously lags behind, and even some data are still in 2019. This speed of update will not only reduce farmers’ enthusiasm, but also affect farmers’ sense of identity with government websites.

2.3.2

The application effect of new media in agriculture-related enterprises. (i) Huangshan Tea Group. Huangshan Tea Group Co., Ltd. has a high-quality tea garden base (1 200 ha), and the company’s products include steamed green tea, roasted tea, Kirara rice tea, pinhead tea, oolong tea, tea bags and so on, exported to more than 10 countries and regions. It has a large number of tea processing plants and is one of the key tea export enterprises in Anhui Province.Huangshan Tea Group attaches great importance to the exploration of agricultural e-commerce, not only setting up its own official website, but also running an online store on Taobao. The person in charge of the processing plant told us that at the initial stage of the Huangshan tea market, most of the transactions were carried out offline, but with the development of Internet technology, the market competitiveness of offline trading has greatly declined. To adapt to the environment of the rapid development of the network economy, the company has set up an e-commerce sales model to sell the processed tea products using the network platform. In order to further promote the enterprise to complete the transition to modernization, Huangshan Tea Group relies on Internet technology to centrally manage logistics, warehousing, vehicles and factories, which greatly reduces management costs and improves operational efficiency. In addition, the company has also established a chat group among tea lovers on WeChat, sharing the company’s promotional activities in the group from time to time, pushing messages to customers, giving gifts,

etc.

(ii) Susong Mankouxiang original planting and breeding cooperative. Susong Mankouxiang original planting and breeding cooperative in Susong County, Anhui Province was established in March 2015, mainly engaged in agricultural production, processing, marketing, food wholesale and retail,

etc.

The cooperative entered the JD.com platform in 2018 and began to engage in e-commerce. According to the survey, the shop name of the cooperative is Anqing Specialty Shop, and the main products sold are poultry meat, pork, beef, mutton and other related agricultural products. Take black pork as an example, it is the best-selling product in the store, completing thousands of transactions in a single month, and the praise rate is as high as 98%. After years of development, the store has a certain number of stable customers, and the number of people who follow the store has reached more than 4 000. Due to recommendation by old customers, the sales volume and sales scope of the products will become larger and larger.

The survey results of these two agriculture-related enterprises show that the new media has created huge economic benefits in the development and sale of characteristic agriculture. They promote the sale of agricultural products through self-built websites and JD.com platform, and it is also combined with traditional offline sale to achieve the common development of a variety of sales methods and promote the development of characteristic agriculture.

The successful experience of these enterprises in creating e-commerce sales model has stimulated other local agriculture-related enterprises to explore e-commerce. According to the survey, local tea and food companies have imitated the way of live commerce. In addition, the application of new media by agriculture-related enterprises not only increases income, but also drives the birth of new industries. With the emergence of agricultural online business, the business of third-party store agents is also in full swing. Third-party stores are popular because they have professional operating teams and proficient operational skills, and can also create jobs in rural areas. The development of rural e-commerce has also greatly promoted the development of the logistics industry. Three years ago, goods in rural areas of Huangshan City were only distributed to the city and township areas near the city center, and some of the remote rural areas had no express delivery networks at all.

2.3.3

The application effect of new media in farmers. In order to understand the practical application of new media in farmers, we conducted a survey near Gaojian Village in Huangshan City in February 2021.

First of all, the development of new media in rural areas has a certain scale. The survey results show that the popularization rate of mobile phones in rural areas is very high. We interviewed Ms. Zhang, the boss of a mobile communications agency in Gaojian Village. She said that farmers are very different from before, now almost everyone has a mobile phone, and there are three other similar agency businesses in the village. Secondly, the use of Internet media is only available for a small number of farmers. We interviewed a tea farmer, who said: "I have grown tea for half my life. In the past, the tea business was difficult, but now it is different and someone specially purchases my tea. The tea I grow is sold to a boss in Zhejiang, who was contacted by my son on the Internet. I know nothing about it (computer), and my son tries to help me and teach me, but I failed to learn it."

In the communication with this tea farmer, we can feel that he is eager to use the Internet, but due to old age and low education level, it is difficult for him to learn to sell online.

Finally, as new media began to play an important role in the dissemination of agricultural information, we interviewed two vegetable farmers in order to understand the application of new media in agricultural production.

Vegetable farmer 1: The government has set up a WeChat group for us vegetable sellers. Some people will send some information about pest control and price changes in the group, which is very useful to us. Moreover, the government also helped us register Wanshitong, where we can find out the real-time prices of all kinds of vegetables. Although many suggested measures for getting rich can’t be implemented here, at least they are helpful to us.

Vegetable farmer 2: I still believe in my own experience in growing vegetables. I can see online the agricultural technology of growing vegetables, sometimes it makes sense, but I will not easily believe what is on the Internet.

This shows that the new media has started in the transmission of agricultural information, and farmers can have access to advanced agricultural technology to stimulate farmers’ enthusiasm for creating wealth. However, there is still a gap between the content of communication and the actual needs of farmers.

The above expounds the actual effect of new media in rural areas from the perspectives of the government, agriculture-related enterprises and farmers, which are closely related and influence each other. The Agricultural Information Network established by Anhui Provincial Government can effectively guide farmers and agriculture-related enterprises to carry out agricultural production, and provide guidance and suggestions. Agriculture-related enterprises are groups that widely use new media, and they use advanced communication technology and a variety of new media marketing channels to create very good economic benefits. Especially they make use of WeChat, microblog and other platforms, giving full play to the advantages of social marketing. Farmers should have been the biggest beneficiaries of the development of new media, but in the actual survey, it is found that the effect of farmers using new media to develop characteristic agriculture is not particularly obvious, they are in a very awkward position. Farmers readily accept the new technology, but the technical difficulty makes them hesitate.

3 Problems in the application of new media in rural e-commerce in Anhui Province

3.1 The legislative work of new media market needs to be promoted urgently

Although new media is changing all aspects of life, the rapid development of the market is often accompanied by hidden dangers. On the one hand, the legal provisions on the current market are not perfect, and the legislative work on new media in China started in a hurry. There are some laws and regulations about new media in China, but as the market environment of new media is complex and the application of new media is springing up, the current law may not be fully applicable to the new environment. This makes the legislative work of new media a long way to go. In addition, farmers’ legal awareness and copyright awareness are weak, and they have no idea if an infringement arises when conducting e-commerce marketing. On the other hand, the requirements for potential market access are low, and there is a lack of order in the development of the potential market, resulting in market chaos. At the same time, due to the lack of leadership of pillar enterprises, most rural self-employed households are unable to obtain market information in time, which will undoubtedly increase the business risk for them.

3.2 The infrastructure construction of rural e-commerce is poor

Logistics is an indispensable part of the development of rural e-commerce. Cement roads have been built in most rural areas of Anhui Province, but "door-to-door delivery" is still a good wish for rural areas. In some remote rural areas, farmers often have to drive several miles to reach the service points to pick up or deliver the goods. For some farmer businessmen, this undoubtedly increases operating costs, which makes it difficult for agricultural products to go out. Because of the particularity of the rural geographical environment, the difficulty and cost of new media infrastructure construction will increase.

3.3 Farmers lack professional guidance

In the process of starting a business, some farmer entrepreneurs with learning ability will take the initiative to learn how to use new media to improve their income-generating ability, but after all, they lack the guidance of professionals, and they are always in a weak position compared with those e-commerce enterprises with a large think tank. Due to the lack of professional guidance, these entrepreneurs are unable to accurately analyze consumer demand, predict the trend of the market, and will not carry out targeted marketing to specific groups. In terms of promotion, it will often lead to a mismatch between production and consumer demand or bankruptcy if an unscientific promotion strategy is formulated, which not only wastes material and financial resources, but also fails to generate income.

3.4 Farmers’ ability to accept and learn is poor

Due to various factors, farmers’ education level is low, and their willingness to accept new media is low. With the promotion of rural industrial transformation, it has become an inevitable trend that e-commerce is widely used in agricultural production. How to use new media to promote the development of rural e-commerce is the content that the majority of farmers need to learn deeply. However, new media is a new thing, farmers do not know much about it, and even some conservative farmers refuse to learn new media. The "digital divide" between farmers of different ages is getting deeper and deeper. This slows down the process of rural industrial transformation, hinders "going out" of rural characteristic agricultural products, and is not conducive to the development of rural characteristic industries.

4 Suggestions

4.1 The provincial government should continue to promote the orderly development of the new media market

In the face of the rapid development of new media, the network department of Anhui Province should strengthen the supervision of the new media market and effectively protect the interests of farmer businessmen; the provincial legislative department should continue to promote the legislative work of the new media market, regulate the market order and maintain the market stability; the provincial publicity department should strengthen the publicity and popularization of law in the field of new media in rural areas, guide farmers how to protect their own interests reasonably and legally, and avoid infringement to the maximum extent; the provincial financial department should provide financial support to farmer businessmen who lack start-up funds, effectively solve farmers’ worries, and at the same time continue to promote the infrastructure construction of rural e-commerce; the provincial organizational department should employ professionals to provide free course guidance to farmers in need from time to time so as to improve their practical operation ability.

4.2 All e-commerce enterprises should actively assume social responsibility

Skillfully mastering new media technology is a necessary condition for the use of new media. Local leading enterprises should actively cooperate with the government, take the initiative to assume responsibility, give full play to their own leading role, integrate local resources to optimize the market environment, and effectively aggregate the resources of local small and micro enterprises; medium-sized enterprises should fully learn from the development experience of local leading enterprises, send talents to support the development of small and micro enterprises, innovate upon the marketing mode and grasp the advantages of characteristic agricultural products to carry out diversified marketing, send professionals to the countryside to guide farmers, and train rural e-commerce entrepreneurs and potential customers to strengthen their professional skills; small and micro enterprises should actively cooperate with the leading enterprises, actively learn and make full use of third-party platforms to achieve transactions. The above measures can not only help farmers, but also create a good corporate image, consolidate the professionalism of employees, and improve the application effect of new media in e-commerce industry.

4.3 Rural e-commerce entrepreneurs should actively promote professional operation

Successful operation often requires not only a professional team, but also an efficient manager. Only by improving the quality of employees can we improve work efficiency. Therefore, rural e-commerce entrepreneurs should actively attract professionals, actively conform to government policies, and constantly promote the professional operation of rural e-commerce. At the same time, the trend of "Internet+ agriculture" has become inevitable. Local rural e-commerce entrepreneurs can actively explore a new marketing model, that is, they can undertake the shop operation of some farmer merchants to reduce their operating costs. At the same time, they can also contact customers and build a bridge between farmers and customers to achieve direct transactions. And they can accept the investment of farmers, let them become shareholders, and give a certain dividend to the farmers, so that farmers can share the dividend of the development of the times.

4.4 Farmers should actively change their views on new media

Affected by many factors, farmers’ understanding of the new media is not high, and their learning enthusiasm is poor. In order to strengthen the scope of application of new media in rural e-commerce, farmers should actively change their thinking and learn more relevant knowledge. Farmers are users of new media technology, and if their awareness of new media can not be changed, then the resistance to the development of new media in rural areas will be very obvious, and the role of new media in promoting the rural economy will not be brought into full play. First of all, village-level leading cadres should actively organize villagers to learn and understand the new media, and arouse farmers’ curiosity and enthusiasm for new media. Finally, farmers should actively emancipate their minds, learn and master the basic operating methods of computers. After mastering the method of operating the computer, farmers should actively understand some new media information, strengthen their ability to identify whether the network information is true or false, and improve their application ability of new media.

5 Conclusions

With the rapid development of e-commerce, new media has penetrated into all aspects of production and life by virtue of its unique advantages. It is changing people’s life and mode of production, and it has an unparalleled influence on the agricultural development of Anhui Province.

The popularity of new media has reduced the cost of agricultural production and increased the potential consumption demand in rural areas. In addition, more and more farmers are joining the thriving industry of new media. It can be predicted that "Internet+ agriculture" will become a new driving force for China’s economic development.

Through the survey in Gaojian Village, Huangshan City, Anhui Province, we found that new media is like a powerful engine, which is promoting the emergence of a new income-generating model in rural areas, promoting the development of agricultural modernization, and creating the broader development space for rural e-commerce. This unprecedented information change is quickly changing everything known to the public. Farmers have finally become the initiators and sharers of information resources, rather than passive receivers. Now farmers are experiencing the changes that their parents never experienced before, and the beautiful blueprint for building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way is finally within reach.

Although the new media is changing the scene in rural areas, there are still many problems in practical application. When the vital interests of farmers are unguarded and there is no market for characteristic agricultural products, no one can look on coldly as a bystander.

At present, the application of new media in rural e-commerce in Anhui Province is still in its infancy, so we should face the problem squarely and look ahead. Only by realizing the tripartite linkage of the government, enterprises and farmers can we effectively promote the development of new media. The government should regulate the market order, strengthen the supervision of the market and improve the legislation, to provide a good market environment for the development of rural e-commerce. All enterprises should actively assume social responsibility and strengthen the training of rural e-commerce merchants. Individual farmer merchants should actively change their ideas, go with the tide of the development of the times, and improve themselves. It is believed that with the joint efforts of the three parties, the new beautiful countryside will be realized in the near future.