The coexistence of a cutting-edge tech industry and still-significant poverty figures is a special condition in China. Despite decades of rapid economic growth, during which several Chinese tech companies have risen to become some of the world’s most successful corporations, there are still more than 50 million people living in poverty here.
From government to big companies, all sectors of Chinese society are taking part in the drive to solve the poverty problem. Baidu, the biggest Chinese search engine, has done lots of work to help the government alleviate poverty.
Using big data to make the fight against poverty more efficient
Baidu has set up lots of experimental units throughout the country to form a big data network to analyze the current state-of-play regarding living conditions in China.
The analysis covers eight measures of living standards, including access to running water, toilets, kitchens, mobile internet, service facilities, road infrastructure, electric lighting and financial services.
With this data, Baidu can use advanced analysis tools to identify and help poor people more accurately. This data can also help the government implement policies to alleviate poverty in different regions more efficiently.
For example, support from Baidu’s foundation was crucial to the highly successful mushroom-farming project in Zhongyang county, a poverty-stricken county in Shanxi province.
Before the start of the project, most villagers in Zhongyang county still made a living through basic agriculture, with almost no industry support.
But the assistance from Baidu has helped the county establish a thriving mushroom-growing industry, which has helped raise villagers’ income levels.
Baidu Support Plan: Solving the difficulty of unmarketable products
During its research, Baidu has found that in many areas of China, widespread poverty is being caused by a range of common factors.
With out-of-date information and communications networks, lack of market access and inconvenient transportation, the products in these counties, especially their agricultural products, are being overproduced.
To solve the problem, Baidu has launched the Baidu Support Plan, helping farmers with overstocked goods to sell their excess produce online.
First, it opens accounts for these farmers with overstocked products for free. Then, it arranged professional costumer service teams to help them maintain these accounts and do online promotion.
Baidu also gives the farmers training in social media marketing, and uses its own customer resources to build offline sales channels for these farmers.
Education: The most important thing to alleviate poverty
Baidu has opened a new channel to alleviate poverty by improving the quality of education and educational facilities in poor counties.
In May, Baidu donated 4,000 customized Baidu Education membership cards to teachers in Shangyou county, Jiangxi province.
The cards allow teachers in Shangyou county to get high-quality education information from Baidu Library and enhance their teaching abilities.
Baidu has also set its sights on minority areas. The Elieen Public Welfare Plan launched by Baidu Wenku is the best example, which aims to improve the quality of educational resources in minority areas.
Baidu Wenku invites outstanding Uyghur, Kazakh, Tibetan, Korean and Mongolian bilingual teachers to help translate educational resources. In the first phase of the project, Baidu Wenku will upload tens of thousands of documents related to minority educational resources.
At the same time, as long as each user likes Elieen Thematic Page once in the Baidu Wenku, Baidu Wenku will donate one yuan to the Elieen Public Welfare Plan. At present, more than 10 million yuan ($1 million) has already been donated to this project.
