Commerce ministry about turn on Cainiao logistics network
Jack Ma, right, poses during a ceremony to announce Alibaba's purchase of a 50% stake in Guangzhou Evergrande FC, in Guangzhou, June 5. (File photo/Xinhua)
An official from China's Ministry of Commerce said recently that Alibaba's construction of a national warehousing network is the wrong direction for the company, adding that if Jack Ma, Alibaba's co-founder, had chosen to build a fourth-party payment platform for logistics, it would have been a major boon to the country.
At the 2014 China International e-Commerce Conference, Nie Linhai, an inspector for the ministry's e-commerce division, criticized Ma for acquiring land to build warehouses for the Alibaba-invested Cainiao Network Technology Company.
Cainiao, which has adopted the model of integrating e-commerce and logistics, will bring about a significant change in the transportation sector, according to industry insiders.
Cainiao was jointly established on May 28, 2013, by several entities, including Alibaba, Yintai Group, Fosun International Limited, China Post, China Postal Express & Logistics Company and delivery firms, such as SF-Express, Tiantian, STO, YTO, ZTO, Yunda, Best and ZJS, as well as several financial institutions.
Ma does not see Cainiao as a virtual platform, Nie stated, adding that because the government favors e-commerce firms, Alibaba has been allowed to build logistics bases and warehouses everywhere.
Nie also revealed that the ministry wants to build a fourth-party payment service, backed by policy and financially-supported by the government.
If small and medium-sized businesses can obtain loans through e-commerce platforms, banks will be able to directly monitor their repayments through the online income of these companies after granting loans, Nie said.
Banks will not face any risks while approving collateral loans this year, he added.
In response, Alibaba spokesperson Wang Shuai said that even though Alibaba has developed rapidly in the cloud computing area, it is still incapable of unifying all the warehouses nationwide into one system.
Building a warehousing center in every regional logistics center is also vital for sustaining a smart logistics network, Wang said.
He added that Cainiao aims to bring about a smart network that can handle business worth an average of 30 billion yuan (US$4.9 billion) per day over the next five to eight years.
Relations between Ma and the Chinese government seem to have undergone a change recently, which have led to the Ministry of Commerce about-turn on Cainiao, which they had previously supported. The government also shut down Ma's Jiangnan Club in the West Lake Scenic Park in Hangzhou, along with 29 other luxury clubs in the area, in accordance with the new management plan announced for the famous scenic spot in April. Earlier this year, four major state-owned banks in China also canceled their preferential terms on deposits for Yu'ebao, an investment fund launched by Alibaba.
No comments:
Post a Comment