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Amanda Lee

Online retailer JD.com is exploring plans to enter the aviation sector after China’s largest private courier SF Express last month bought two Boeing 747-400 freighters. 
“I can only say aviation will be important [for logistics] in the future,” Bill Fu Bing, head of logistics planning and development at JD.com, told reporters at a global logistics forum in Beijing. “Do we need to buy our own planes or build our own airports? This is something we are looking at." 
The Beijing-based e-commerce firm created a separate logistics unit, JD Logistics, in April.

China’s tech firms including JD.com have been strengthening their investments in automation and logistics to cut costs and lift efficiency in areas such as warehousing and delivery.
JD.com has built its own airport for drones that are in operation but has yet to invest in airplanes. 
China’s biggest private courier buys two Boeing 747-400 freighters, via Alibaba’s Taobao e-shopping site
SF Express, the Shenzhen-based delivery company, said earlier this year that it would spend 2.7 billion yuan to buy aircraft and recruit pilots.
As part of its investments in automation, JD.com last week announced a 10 billion yuan self-driving project in Changsha. The logistics industry will be the first to implement self-driving and benefit from autonomous vehicles because it would make the delivery process simpler and faster, according to Fu. 
“Technology is not the biggest problem now,” said Fu. “The biggest problem is whether there is corresponding policy from the government [to encourage the use]. If we look at the big picture, I think in the next three to five years, we’ll see a sea of change.”


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Aviation

Chinese online retailer JD.com explores move into aviation to improve logistics 

JD.com, the Beijing-based e-commerce firm, created a separate logistics unit JD Logistics in April. Photo: Reuters

Bill Fu Bing, head of logistics planning and development at JD.com. Photo: HANDOUT

China’s JD.com expands operations to Silicon Valley

In this photo taken April 2, 2015, visitors wait at the entrance to JD.com head office in Beijing. Since it went online in 2003, JD.com has grown into China’s biggest Internet-based direct retailer. It is a powerful selling point for Chinese consumers who have endured repeated scandals over fake and sometimes deadly milk, medicines and other products. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

A woman walks past a advertisement board of Jingdong Mall (JD.com) in Nanjing, Jiangsu province in China. Photo: Rueters

As JD.com founder cuts pay to US$1 a year, Chinese e-commerce firm targets poorer rural customers

E-commerce firm JD.com wants to expand into 100,000 rural Chinese villages and smaller cities. Photo: Reuters

Richard Liu Qiangdong, JD.com founder, said he will cut his annual pay to less than US$1 per year, though the billionaire still has substantial stock holdings in the company. Photo: AP

E-commerce market penetration is significantly lower in rural China than in the country's urban centres. Photo: Reuters

JD reported a net loss of 510.42 million yuan (US$82.06 million) in the second quarter, an improvement from 582.53 million yuan in the same period last year. Photo: Reuters

There are more than 500 smaller Chinese urban centres classified as tier six cities. Photo: Xinhua

China's No 2 e-commerce player JD.com sees new Hong Kong office as conduit to Asia, stepping stone to investments overseas

Rain Long, JD.com’s chief human resources officer and general counsel. Photo: Edmond So

Liu Qiangdong, co-founder of JD.com (second from left), applauds with a group of CEOs and other executives as Chinese President Xi Jinping (not shown) arrives to greet them at Microsoft's campus in Washington on Wednesday. AFP PHOTO

JD.com has 118 million active customers in its home market. Photo: Reuters

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Lalamove has over 30,000 drivers including 8,000 operating in China. Photo: SCMP Pictures

'One Belt, One Road' transforms Zhengzhou into a key logistics hub between China and Europe

Zhengzhou is located along the upcoming Western Europe-Western China highway.Photo: ImagineChina

Chinese online retailer JD.com explores move into aviation to improve logistics

The firm is investing heavily in automation to cut costs and boost efficiency