An Analysis of the Five Major Schools of Internet Plus Agriculture and Their Future Development Directions

In 2015, the government formulated the “Internet Plus” action plan, media outlets of all kinds extensively reported on Internet Plus agriculture, and agriculture is becoming the next outlet of the mobile internet, so who is standing, or already standing, at this outlet?

This article attempts to summarize five major schools of Internet Plus agriculture, comment on the advantages and disadvantages of these models, and provide direct reference for those who come later.

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The added value of products has long been a chronic problem in domestic agricultural development, and most agricultural enterprises are weighed down by costs and management so much that they cannot lift their heads, with few resources and little capacity to explore the growth path of branding. However, as the internet extends into the agricultural field, these problems have begun to be solved, and high-end agricultural product brands such as Chu Orange, Pan Apple, and Liu Peach have emerged, as well as fruit and seafood e-commerce brands such as Three Squirrels and Zhangzidao.

More importantly, a group of powerful internet enterprises have also vigorously laid out agriculture, such as NetEase, Lenovo, and others. Money can make the devil turn the mill, let alone internet giants that have both money and ideas.

Take Lenovo as an example. Data shows that Lenovo Holdings began to enter the field of modern agricultural investment in 2010, formally established an agricultural investment business division in July 2010, and formally established Joyvio Group on August 9, 2012. The company currently focuses on investments in segmented fields such as fruit and tea, and “Joyvio” blueberries are priced at more than 500 yuan per kilogram. At present, Joyvio has become the largest blueberry whole-industry-chain enterprise and the largest kiwifruit cultivation enterprise in China.

The approach Lenovo currently adopts will definitely be the path of many internet companies in the future. Through capital injection and brand building, internet enterprises are combined with agricultural products and embark on a new path of agricultural industrialization. However, such a path may only suit large internet companies, especially these very few domestic IT giants, and the risk coefficient is very high. It requires sufficient risk resistance and channel layout capability, otherwise it is easy to fail at the final step.

2. Transform tradition and use internet thinking to create offline experiences in the agricultural economy.

Internet technology makes agricultural products fully transparent from the “field” to the “dining table”, allowing agricultural companies to see broad “money prospects” in it. For example, some agricultural greenhouses use the Internet of Things for real-time monitoring and apply big data for analysis and prediction, enabling precision agriculture, reducing unit costs, and increasing unit yields. At the same time, greenhouse cultivation can also be combined with the agricultural experience economy to launch picking experiences similar to stealing vegetables. If community economy and social applications are further combined, there will certainly be very good future prospects.

In the development of mobile internet O2O, farmer markets like those appearing in Beijing, which sell agricultural products from farmers to the dining table, are gradually rising. Last year, Young Vegetable Gentleman won the “Silver Award in the National Mobile Internet Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition Finals”, and with semi-finished fresh food e-commerce as its development direction, users can purchase semi-finished fresh food through online reservations and offline self-pickup at subway entrances.

Of course, today’s hugely popular internet finance will also play a great role in promoting agricultural development. Media reports say that the Suning crowdfunding channel officially began selling Hanyuan cherries, crossing the 50,000 yuan threshold in just 145 minutes after launch, with pledges exceeding 110,000 yuan that day, equivalent to helping fruit farmers sell cherries from at least 500 trees. Data released by Ant Financial also shows that in the past year, newly added rural Yu'ebao users exceeded 20 million, increasing income by 700 million yuan.

Internet thinking is not empty. It will have specific applications in specific places, and in agriculture it will have even broader prospects. Mobile internet O2O and internet finance will both play enormous roles in the Internet Plus of the future.