Farmers attract sales with live broadcasts

As a flurry of animated "thumbs-up" and "like" icons popped up on her mobile phone, 24-year-old fruit farmer Han Mei attracted over 5,000 viewers on her livestream during one recent afternoon.

Unlike other "cyber stars" doing livestreams of musical performances or of themselves playing games, Han attracted 90,000 followers by selling fruit, such as peaches and persimmons, and sharing her country life in her hometown of Difang town in East China's Shandong province.

Over the past nine months, the turnover of her online store has exceeded 1.1 million yuan ($163,800), with the highest single-day turnover reaching 50,000 yuan. Difang, located in the Yimeng Mountain area, used to be a major poverty region. It is just one of the many areas benefiting from e-commerce and livestreaming.