Alibaba’s logistics subsidiary Cainiao Network plans to expand its network with five new logistics hubs around the world, according to Jack Ma, executive chairman of Alibaba Group.
Speaking at the company’s 2018 Global Smart Logistics Summit, Ma said that Dubai, Hangzhou, Kuala Lumpur, Liège and Moscow are among the first batch of cities being considered as the locations for the new hubs.
The hubs will provide enhanced logistics infrastructure on a larger scale in order to make trade easier for small businesses worldwide, allowing them to sell around the world and to deliver a better consumer experience.
Cainiao also unveiled its Future Park, a new logistics complex in Wuxi aimed at facilitating and improving trade in China. The park consists of a smart warehouse, offices and shops, and applies technologies including artificial intelligence, big data, edge computing and long-range Internet of Things. The smart warehouse features infrared sensors, robotic arms, automatic guided vehicles and swarm intelligence.
Other solutions showcased by the company include Cainiao Box, which has a temperature-controlled interior and can receive packages through facial identification of the deliverer, a smart delivery robot called Little G, as well as an unmanned delivery vehicle called G Plus which is being road-tested in Hangzhou.
The network hopes to roll out 24-hour delivery across China and push logistics costs from around 15% of China’s GDP down to less than 5%. It also aims to push 72-hour delivery to the rest of the world.
“This network is not only national, but global,” said Ma. “This is what we will work closely with our partners to achieve and bring benefits to all. As the industry will increasingly become tech-driven, Cainiao aims to be the ‘brain’ of the logistics industry. Since the first day of its birth, Cainiao’s mission is not to deliver goods, but to help delivery firms to deliver goods by building a network that links all logistics elements and connects every delivery person, every warehouse, every hub, every city and every house.”
