ONE PLATFORM TO RULE THEM ALL: THE BRAINS BEHIND CAINIAO NETWORK (PI) INVESTMENT ,  LOGISTICS ,  RESEARCH & INSIGHTS This is the first of a four-piece series breaking down Alibaba’s plan to shake up China’s logistics:  Cainiao Network .  Part 2 ,  Part 3 ,  Part 4 The Beginning In May 2013, Alibaba, along with Yintai Group, FOSUN Group, FORCHN Logistics, SF Express and a group of leading Chinese last-mile logistics companies conveniently labeled “Three TOs and One DA” (YTO Express, STO Express, ZTO Express and Yun Da Express) established  Cainiao Network Technology Co. Ltd. This consortium led by Alibaba is committed to building a “ China Smart Logistics Network (CSN) ” to realize 24-hour delivery of any product to anywhere in China and a total of 300 billion RMB ($43 billion USD) was invested to kickstart the project. Alibaba’s announcement of Cainiao and Jack Ma entering the logistics industry was like an atomic bomb dropping, with ripplin...