by SHERMAN SO
HONG KONG – A recent boast by Alibaba, China’s biggest e-commerce company, that it will invest US$4.5 billion to transform the country’s logistics business within 10 years, may turn out to be little more than an eye-catching publicity gimmick.
Its less prominent decision to raise the fee for membership of its business-to-business (B2B) market last September could prove the real driver to boost profit.
Hangzhou-based Alibaba Group on January 19 said it was planning to build a network of warehouses across China. The goal is to create a logistics platform that will help merchants to meet rapidly growing domestic consumption needs and to improve service quality to Chinese consumers.
“Hopefully within 10 years’ time, anyone placing an order online from anywhere in China will receive their goods within eight hours, allowing for the virtual urbanization of every village across China,” said chairman and chief executive Jack Ma. “In order to achieve this, we will need to establish a modern, 21st century logistics network.”
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