Platform uses technology to improve farmers' lives

Selling 2,000 metric tons of dates and receiving about 700,000 orders within just three months is not an easy task for farmers living in Lin county of Shanxi province, a poverty-stricken area some eight hours by car from Beijing.

When a good harvest came to the village at the end of 2016, Gong Wenbin, the county's chief official, decided to seek help from e-commerce platform Pinduoduo.com.

In response, the company has adopted a customer to business model, collected a massive amount of orders and sent them to targeted sellers. In the process, Pinduoduo helped local residents set up online stores to handle booming sales that totaled more than 12 million yuan ($1.89 million).