Rumor: Taobao Makes Move in Logistics
Tencent Tech, 6/04/10
According to a source close to Taobao, the Chinese B2C and C2C e-commerce site has secretly launched a plan, code-named "3rd Movement," that will focus on logistics for e-commerce.
The source revealed that Taobao has long intended to make a move in logistics, and began to increase its investment in this area in late 2009. Since the start of this year, Taobao has increased the size of its logistics team by more than threefold over the previous year. The head of Taobao's "3rd Movement" project visited the US for on-site research into the warehousing, logistics and delivery systems of Amazon and other e-commerce giants, in order to better devise strategy for Taobao's own plan.
Taobao declined to comment on the rumor. A logistics service provider that had been in talks with the company said, however, that Taobao is indeed looking for a third-party logistics company with whom to jointly build a delivery center.