Alibaba is stepping up efforts to tighten control over its logistics network to fend off stiffening competition in its core ecommerce business, paying nearly $1bn to double its stake in Chinese courier group YTO Express.
Hangzhou-based Alibaba remains China’s largest ecommerce platform, but has reported slowing growth for its Taobao and Tmall marketplaces even as competitors such as JD.com have experienced a pandemic-driven boost.
A particular challenge for Alibaba is its reliance on partners to ferry its 29.5bn annual packages to shoppers. During China’s lockdown early this year as authorities sought to curb the spread of coronavirus, that meant many of its goods went undelivered by courier companies lacking manpower.