Alibaba drone delivery trial

About 450 Alibaba customers in China had their purchases delivered in a special way — by drones.

The online retailer was carrying out a trial programme delivering packages by remote control. It was done in partnership with Shanghai YTO Express — from February 4-6 — for customers in selected distribution areas in Guangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai.

Packages, which had to weigh less than 340g, were said to be delivered within an hour.