The Zhejiang Rural Livestreaming Program kicked off in Kecheng district, Quzhou, a city in the province, on May 8, local media reported.

The rural livestreaming program, a key part of the "Beautiful Life in Zhejiang Livestream Season" project launched in April, was initiated by the Department of Commerce of Zhejiang Province and the e-commerce giant Alibaba Group.

The program is aimed at boosting the development of the e-commerce industry in the rural areas of Zhejiang and revitalizing rural industries.

Viya, a popular livestream host in China and ambassador of the livestream season, was invited to share her experience online in using livestreams to sell agricultural products. Other popular livestream hosts in Quzhou participated as well, including Kecheng official Zhang Xianyi.

As the host city of the activity, Quzhou has experienced rapid development in e-commerce. In 2019, the city became a role model for new retail in Zhejiang, along with Hangzhou and Ningbo.

Online retail sales growth in Quzhou has remained among the top two in Zhejiang for five consecutive years, and in 2019 its online retail sales soared 39.9 percent year-on-year to 24.65 billion yuan ($3.49 billion), 21.5 percentage points higher than the provincial average.

Since 2019, livestreams have experienced rapid development in the city, boosting not only the e-commerce industry, but also economic and social development.

Retail sales of products via livestreams in Quzhou on Taobao.com, Tmall.com, and JD.com have reached 1.33 billion yuan this year, and the livestreams were viewed by more than 95 million people.

Quzhou also piloted the first Alibaba rural livestreaming school in China and introduced livestream e-commerce institutions to promote local products online.

In addition, government officials at the municipal- and county-levels also hosted livestreams to promote Quzhou products.