The Alibaba owned Cainiao Network plans to offer next day delivery across China and 72 hour delivery anywhere else in the world, according to CEO Jack Ma who was speaking at a Cainiao event in Hangzhou on the 29th May.

According to Ma, the Cainiao Network has already reduced cross-border shipping times from 70 days on average to fewer than 10 days in some countries’ cases. On mainland China, the single-day and two-day delivery service now reaches 1500 counties and districts.

Ma also said in the Hangzhou presentation that the Alibaba Group is to invest billions of dollars into the technical backbone of a ‘smart logistics network’ that is ‘not only national but global’ and which will “connect every courier, connect every warehouse, every hub, every city and every house”.

Ma continued: “If we can use data to solve the problem of low transport efficiency and high logistics costs, we can create huge profit margins for the manufacturing industry and logistics sector. I think this is what Cainiao and our logistics industry should do for the country.

“This network was established by Cainiao, but it doesn’t belong to Cainiao. It belongs to all logistics companies. Logistics companies are Cainaio’s most important partners … we need to provide our partners with core technology and core products to make our logistics partners stronger.”