Consumer fears after SF Express and Alibaba's Cainiao row escalates

Wang Wei, the chairman of SF Express, and Jack Ma, the chairman of Alibaba. [Photo: baidu.com]

Millions of consumers and traders across China are being hit by an ongoing row between delivery giant SF Express and Alibaba's logistics arm Cainiao.

As of June 1st, people using the online shopping portal Taobao have found they can no longer track orders being delivered by SF Express. 

Alibaba has also removed SF Express as a delivery option on its e-commerce platforms, including Taobao.

China's State Postal Bureau has stepped in to mediate between the two parties, in the hope they can guarantee the smooth shipping of perishable goods, such as agricultural products, safeguarding the interests of both consumers and sellers.

Hive Box's self-pick-up lockers. [Photo: 163.com]

The dispute came to light after Alibaba's Cainiao claimed on Wednesday that SF Express had denied the company access to data from its self-pickup Hive Box service, along with post-back logistics information of packages on the Taobao platform.

The move meant that vendors and consumers on Taobao.com were unable to track the delivery progress of packages. 

Responding to the claim, SF Express criticized Alibaba's Cainiao app, which offers full logistics tracking online, for abruptly terminating the cooperation with Hive Box, citing data security as the reason for disconnection. 

SF Airlines, part of the SF Express Logistics network. [Photo: 163.com]

SF Express further suggested that the action was in retaliation for the company's refusal to switch its data systems from Tencent Cloud to Alibaba's Ali Cloud.

Earlier Hive Box reportedly also declined Cainiao's request to provide clients' privacy data, under the "customer-first" principal. 

In a statement issued Friday afternoon, the president of Cainiao, Wan Lin, said Hive Box had gathered Taobao users' information, such as phone numbers, ever since the two companies started their cooperation. He said this exceeded the scope of reasonable use and posed a severe security risk. Wan said this had been the main cause of the dispute between the two sides. He stressed that Cainiao was anxious to keep talking with SF Express to resolve the issue, and said he believed the two companies should be tolerant and capable of reaching a consensus.