Chinese short video platform Kuaishou announced on Tuesday it has inked a strategic partnership with the United Nations World Food Programme, the world's largest humanitarian organization addressing hunger and promoting food security, as part of its broader drive to alleviate poverty and bolster local economies across the nation.

Industry insiders said short videos and livestreaming applications have played an increasingly important role in helping people in poverty-stricken areas to gain extra income by creating social e-commerce businesses.

Song Tingting, vice-president of Kuaishou, said WFP has made tremendous efforts and achievements in targeted poverty alleviation and rural revitalization in China, adding the partners will jointly promote the integration of online public welfare programs with the food program's sustainable development goals.

"Empowering residents from the most underprivileged regions in China, Kuaishou has launched a series of rural entrepreneurship incubation programs that educate participants on how to set up and run businesses, as well as help rural residents sell locally-made products," Song noted.

Statistics from Kuaishou showed more than 25 million people earned income through the platform last year, among which were over 6.5 million people from national-level poverty-stricken counties.

She added that the number of short videos uploaded to Kuaishou recording the lives of people in the poverty-hit counties has so far surpassed 2.9 billion.

Kuaishou has donated more than 120,000 nutritious meals to WFP, supporting the latter's program in Central China's Hunan province and South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region to improve the nutrition conditions of preschool children.