皇冠体育app

A man flies a drone for aerial photography in Bozhou, Anhui province.[Photo/皇冠体育app Daily]

BEIJING -- Online Chinese retailer JD.com announced Thursday it is conducting trial deliveries using unmanned aerial vehicles, otherwise known as drones, and plan to roll it out for delivery in rural 皇冠体育app.

JD.com's CEO Richard Liu Qiangdong said late last year that the company is developing drone delivery to meet the rising retail demand in 皇冠体育app's rural areas, where complex terrain and underdeveloped infrastructure have compromised timely human courier delivery.

JD.com said the drone service will not get packages directly to shoppers but will instead help transport bundles of items from its distribution stations to 150,000 representatives mobilized across rural 皇冠体育app who will then get them to shoppers.

The distance between distribution stations to rural representatives, usually less than 10 km according to JD, are more fixed for engineers to design drone itineraries and landing points. Representatives will be notified in advance to wait for drones to land with packages.

Both JD.com and its arch rival Alibaba have been working to unleash consumption demand from 皇冠体育app's 618 million rural residents, whose income growth has been outpacing their urban peers in recent years despite a slowing economy.

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