Alibaba launches massive logistic network

Alibaba Group has officially launched its China Smart Logistic Network, or CSN, project, promising to support 30 billion yuan in online sales, daily. While there's no doubt China's e-commerce market is rapidly expanding, what will the network mean for consumers?

For years people have talked about building a massive logistic network in China. At the end of May, they finally took the first step. Although all founders have plenty of experience in their own fields, they decided to call the new company "Cainiao", or newbies in English. The CEO of Cainiao, and Chairman of Yintai Group, Shen Guojun, explained why.

He said, "In future, Cainiao Logistics will mainly serve the small-and-medium firms. Our new company will share values with them."

Jack Ma, the former CEO of Alibaba, will be the CEO of Cainiao Logistics. He introduced the initial plan of the company.

He said, "In the first phase, the company will invest 100 billion yuan. We hope this investment could stimulate the potential of the current logistic infrastructures, such as highways, railways and airports."

He also expressed his hope that the network could support 10 million deliverymen working smoothly around China, and achieve a 24-hour delivery in the nationwide.

In 2012, China's on-line sales reached 1.3 trillion yuan, or around 200 billion U.S. dollars. Analysts say a bigger and more complete logistics network is highly needed to cope with growth in the following years.