Alibaba’s principal e-commerce competitor, JD.com,28 is pursuing an “asset-heavy” strategy, investing directly in its own logistics infrastructure. JD’s mascot is Joy, a gray metallic dog, chosen no doubt to give symbolic chase to Tmall’s black cat. Today JD has built up the largest warehousing capacity29 of any e-commerce company in China, offering speedy delivery services including same-day30 delivery in forty-three cities. JD.com runs a truly end-to-end system, controlling its own procurement, inventory, distribution, and warehouse systems, with goods delivered to customers by uniformed
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