Alibaba, on the other hand, is also devoting great efforts to purge poverty.

Just a few days ago, the company set up a special fund to promote prosperity in China's rural areas. In the next five years, Alibaba will invest 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) to explore multiple ways to fight against poverty using internet technologies.

Ant Financial Services Group, an affiliate company of Alibaba, has provided unsecured loan services to more than 2 million rural startups, said Jing Xiandong, the company's chief executive officer.

In addition to business loans, Ant Financial also offers free online medical insurance for impoverished families to prevent them from being devastated by high medical costs if a family member becomes critically ill.

Illness and its related costs are a major cause of poverty among China's rural population. As of the end of 2016, about 40 percent of impoverished people in rural areas suffer from some form of illness, statistics from the National Health and Family Planning Commission show.

"The service allows these families to insure and claim for compensation online," Jing said, adding that more than 350,000 rural people have been insured to date.

He also mentioned Alibaba's other plans to tackle poverty, including subsidizing college students in poor areas and planting trees where desertification hinders local economic development.

JD.com and Alibaba are not only the ones working against poverty, other domestic e-commerce companies such as Vipshop and Yigo have rolled out specific plans to promote the national poverty alleviation campaign, with more expected to join in the future.

China lifted 12.4 million rural residents out of poverty last year. There are still 43.3 million people living below the poverty line with an average annual income less than 2,300 yuan ($340), according to the National Bureau of Statistics.