Gyaltsen， a Tibetan born in Markam County in eastern Tibet Autonomous Region， started his own online business this summer after years of working in faraway cities. Now， the 27-year-old runs two online shops and one offline store in his hometown， selling local specialties such as matsutake mushrooms， wood ears and chili sauce with the help of a local e-commerce company.
　　“I got about 200 to 300 orders per month， which brought me a net profit of 7，000 yuan （$1，020） to 8，000 yuan （$1，165）. It’s twice my average monthly salary when I worked for other companies，” Gyaltsen told Beijing Review.
　　Gyaltsen’s online stores are part of Markam’s ambition to bring e-commerce into its rural areas. Markam in 2016 was listed as a national-level test field to promote rural e-commerce. Markam East Tibet E-Commerce Co. Ltd. was chosen to lead the drive in the county. Zhang Rongqiang， manager of the company， plays a key role in Gyaltsen’s e-commerce venture.

Brotherhood of clicks

　　Gyaltsen loves playing online games. So does Zhang. League of Legends was their favorite game and they used to play in the same team online. Gyaltsen acted as a shooter， also known as Attack Damage Carry， while Zhang as a supporter. However， they didn’t get to know each other until they met in the same Internet cafe in 2017. And they didn’t expect that their roles in the cyberspace would turn into a real-life partnership.
　　“I failed the civil servant exam after graduation from college in 2015， and kept hopping from one job to another， looking for an ideal employer，” Gyaltsen said. Dissatisfied with his job in a hotel， the young Tibetan asked if Zhang’s company had any vacancy.
　　“Why don’t you run online stores and be your own boss？” Zhang said. The 38-yearold was in the first year of his new position， looking for new blood to develop rural ecommerce in Markam. And he promised to give Gyaltsen a leg up if the latter decided to start his own online business.
　　But Gyaltsen was hesitant. After all， except for online shopping， he had never engaged in e-commerce before. He continued to work in a local company. However， the seed of starting an online business was sown in his mind and germinated slowly and quietly.
　　After two more years of working in Chamdo， a city 300 km away from his hometown， Gyaltsen decided to return to Markam and start from scratch. “Markam abounds with mushrooms and pepper. I wanted to sell these specialties all over the country via the Internet，” he said. 　　In 2019， he volunteered to work for free in East Tibet E-Commerce， where he learned how to run online shops. Touched by Gyaltsen’s resolve， Zhang taught Gyaltsen everything he knows about e-commerce： from finding suppliers and taking photos of goods to opening stores and online marketing. “Gyaltsen is vigorous and optimistic. He is eager to make full use of his creativity and make his dream come true step by step，”Zhang said.
　　After a year-long preparation， Gyaltsen launched his company in June. Both his office and brick-and-mortar store are located in East Tibet E-Commerce’s incubation hub， where he did not need to pay rent in the first year. “Mr. Zhang is a man of his word. He said that he would support me， and he did deliver on his promise，” Gyaltsen said.
　　Besides higher income， starting up his own business brought Gyaltsen closer to his family. “When I worked in Chamdo， it took me 10 hours to make a round trip home. I used to visit my parents twice every year. Now I can enjoy family time whenever I want，” he said.
　　Gyaltsen is not alone in benefiting from the rural e-commerce drive. By June， a total of 57 online stores， including Gyaltsen’s， have been incubated by East Tibet E-Commerce. Instant butter tea， highland barley biscuits， pepper sauce and matsutake mushrooms are among the items sold by local online store owners. Total sales of these stores in the first seven months this year reached 420，000 yuan （$61，182）， increasing by 9.6 percent year on year.

Rural network

　　Besides the incubation hub， setting up e-commerce service outlets in Markam’s villages and providing free e-commerce-related training to the locals are also high on East Tibet E-Commerce’s agenda.
　　“We have built an e-commerce network in Markam， with a public service hub in the downtown acting as the brain and 23 rural outlets as its arms，” Zhang said. All the outlets were contracted and built by East Tibet E-Commerce and run by villagers. Operators of the outlets receive and send packages for fellow villagers， as well as help those who don’t know how to shop online. Operators don’t charge any fee for working as delivery and buying agents for villagers. But the local government will give them a sum of money as a reward for serving rural residents.
　　Wangdu from Dorkhang Ding rural community is the latest to join the network. He and his wife ran a shabby grocery store at the entrance of the community. In July 2019， East Tibet E-Commerce held a free training course on e-commerce in the community. Wangdu， attracted by the prospect of rural e-commerce， volunteered to operate a new outlet. The local government earmarked 30，000 yuan （$4，370） for a facelift of the grocery store， and equipped it with computer and wireless Internet. A billboard with “rural e-commerce service outlet” was erected at the door of the store in June. 　　Although running the outlet didn’t bring immediate income to the couple， the net profit of their grocery increased by 1，000 yuan （$146） in July. The couple attributed the growth to the facelift and the billboard. “My grocery has become cleaner and nicer， and more and more passers-by stop by to buy stuff after seeing the billboard，” Wangdu said.
　　And the outlet cures the “last-mile pain”for villagers who want to enjoy online shopping. “Thanks to the rural e-commerce outlet， villagers don’t need to go to the town to collect their packages. It saves us a lot of time and cost，” Jamyang Chusang， a civil servant working nearby， said.

Strong growth

　　Markam’s is one of the epitomes of Tibet’s e-commerce growth. According to the department of commerce of Tibet， the number of online stores has reached 32，070， creating 128，700 jobs for local residents by the end of June. And in the first half of the year， online sales of the region’s farm produce surged by 39.01 percent year on year.
　　“Promoting e-commerce in rural areas， especially in remote regions such as Tibet， is an effective way to consolidate the achievements made in poverty alleviation，” Cui Lili， Executive Director of the Institute of E-Commerce at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics， told Beijing Review. She believes that promoting rural e-commerce involves introducing new technologies， new channels and new ideas to villagers， which will offer them one more way to make a living.
　　However， the road to e-commerce isn’t all plain sailing. For Gyaltsen， marketing is the biggest hurdle. “My online stores remain unknown to many and don’t have enough visitors. I don’t know how to improve them，”he said.

　　Cui suggested that online business people can use live-streaming or short videos as a way to move into larger markets. Also， infrastructure for rural e-commerce， such as warehouses and logistics should be improved to ensure a healthy development of e-commerce in remote rural areas.
　　（Reporting from Tibet Autonomous Region）