Similar to the small Swiss town of Davos that hosts the globally renowned World Economic Forum, the small town of Wuzhen in East China's Zhejiang province has also attracted global attention by being home to the World Internet Conference. [Special coverage]
The reasons for selecting Wuzhen as the permanent site of the conference include convenient travel by train or bus, beautiful scenery and a rich heritage. But above all, Wuzhen was reborn with an Internet backbone as early as 2003 when the town started renovation and further development.
All the major streets and tourist attractions in Wuzhen are covered by Wi-Fi. A large number of stores and restaurants in town allow consumers to pay via Alibaba's mobile payment tool Alipay.
Tongxiang county, with which Wuzhen is affiliated, has taken the lead in terms of developing its e-commerce business. During the first six months of this year, the total e-commerce transaction volume in Tongxiang reached a record 32.5 billion yuan ($5.07 billion).
Zhejiang, the home of the country's e-commerce sector, has provided fertile soil for its smaller cities and towns.
Alibaba Group is undoubtedly the benchmark of Zhejiang's e-commerce industry.
Supported by Alibaba's robust growth, total e-retail volume in Zhejiang reached 300 billion yuan in the first half of this year, up 51.4 percent year-on-year, much higher than the national average of 30.4 percent.
But more Internet and technology companies have been receiving growing attention, such as discount e-retailer Vip.com, which began in Zhejiang, and communications equipment maker H3C Technologies.
"We pay a lot of attention to big data, cloud computing, mobile Internet, Internet finance and many other new businesses, as well as advancing the development of e-commerce to speed up reform in our business model and explore more of the market. The Internet economy has become the strategic choice for Zhejiang to seek its economic upgrade and transformation," said Li Qiang, governor of Zhejiang.
