“Rural populations, especially the young rural population, are not what we knew before,” said Wang Feng, a professor of sociology at the University of California, Irvine. “They are the best-ever educated rural youth in Chinese history. Their parents -- as migrants or farmers -- worked hard, and then they gave the young people the capacity and resources to be able to consume.”

For the full story, please visit https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-07/alibaba-and-jd-com-battle-to-capture-rural-china-s-spending-power.