Having successfully upended the entire retail system in the US, Amazon.com has set its sites on China and taken direct aim at Alibaba Holdings, China’s e-commerce giant.
Amazon is expanding its logistics operations for handling goods headed to Japan, Europe, and the US. Last year, it began its move to export from inside the country, by registering a Chinese subsidiary, the Beijing Century Joyo Courier Service, with China’s transport ministry.
It has also filed an application with the Shanghai Shipping Exchange to become the shipping broker for 12 trade routes, such as the Shanghai-to-LA and Shanghai-to-Hamburg routes, according to Reuters.
Reports point to Brian Xue, vice president of Amazon’s operations in China, as the brains behind the operation. Since joining the company in 2014, he’s apparently been pushing for a takeover of the mainland, personally signing the recent filings with the government himself.
Amazon’s master plan, according to Forbes, is to build a system that will allow its customers to ship to absolutely anywhere in the world, at minimal cost, and in just three days or less.
With ambitions similar to Amazon’s Alibaba has already expanding its logistics networks and services to every continent, and has taken the lead in streaming, banking, payments and other systems.