Nokia Siemens Networks and China Mobile's (CHL) Fujian branch are working together to help bleed China's peasants of their hard-earned cash through a new marketing platform that will allow urbanites to sell to farmers via the Internet.

"Nokia Siemens Networks believes that only commercially viable technology solutions, which include relevant applications, can drive sustainable growth in emerging economies. The e-commerce solution enables a win-situation for all players in the value chain — rural consumers can easily access a wider range of reliable and quality consumer products at better price, local shop owners can overcome the traditional entry barriers to expand their own business scope, and retail suppliers can expand their rural market channel at minimum costs," stated Josef Lorenz, head of innovations at Nokia Siemens Networks.

The e-commerce solution is an integrated end-to-end service, which contains an online catalogue in which urban businesses can upload their products for marketing to rural customers. The service is delivered to villagers through local entrepreneurs, who provide shared Internet access to the online shopping platform tailored to the rural environment. The online shopping model challenges traditional ways of conducting business and purchasing goods in remote locations — villagers gain access to a wider selection of reliable consumer products, and urban suppliers are provided with a new sales channel reaching the mass market in villages. Nokia Siemens Networks is currently running a pilot in partnership with Fujian Mobile, a subsidiary of China Mobile.

In addition, the service gives the operator the opportunity explore a potentially powerful new business model that helps them to improve local presence in rural areas. The business model has been successfully piloted over five months at two counties in Fujian province of southeast China in partnership with Fujian Mobile and local retail suppliers. Nokia Siemens Networks says it has collaborated closely with Fujian Mobile and provided extensive consulting services in identifying this new opportunity.