China's two top logistics suppliers end dispute

Chinese courier service SF Express and e-commerce giant Alibaba's logistics arm Cainiao reached an agreement on Friday to resume cooperation following their dispute over data sharing, according to a statement by China's postal authority.

In a statement posted on its official account on social media, the State Post Bureau said the two companies had agreed to resume data sharing starting 12:00 p.m. on Saturday after successful talks between executives from both sides.

The disaccord between SF and Cainiao emerged on Thursday when users of Taobao, the country's largest e-commerce platform belonging to Alibaba, discovered they were not able to track their parcels if they chose SF for delivery. Shipments of fresh produce such as cherries, lychees and mangos were especially at risk due to a halt in data sharing and communication between the two firms.

Cainiao said in a statement that SF had rejected its proposal to provide more comprehensive logistics data to detect counterfeit shipments, and unilaterally terminated data sharing from its self-pickup outlet service on Wednesday evening. However, SF responded that such request went beyond normal business purposes and might breach customer privacy.

(CGTN)