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Zhiqiang was once a migrant rural worker struggling to make a living. He had tried his luck as a vegetable street vendor, a construction worker and a takeout deliveryman. Despite being poorly educated, Zhiqiang had always been interested in computers and the internet. He moved to Beijing’s Zhongguancun area, known as China’s Silicon Valley, where he took on many manual labour jobs for more than six years. By 2006, he had saved enough money to buy a computer, which he took back to his hometown, a small rural farming village in north China’s Shanxi province. After overcoming the challenge of getting the internet installed in his home, he opened an online shop selling just a few local products such as rice and soybeans. His friends and family wondered what on earth he was trying to do. In 2008, while the Olympic Games were in full swing in Beijing, Zhiqiang got the break he needed. He opened ‘Farmville’, not the popular game but an online shop selling all kinds of fresh produce grown by the local
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Rachel Botsman (Who Can You Trust?: How Technology Brought Us Together and Why It Might Drive Us Apart)