16 h. ago How China's retail market is evolving amid Alibaba and Meituan's instant commerce war

How China's retail market is evolving amid Alibaba and Meituan's instant commerce war  Yahoo Finance

Events

24 h. ago Immediate gratification: instant commerce transforms China’s retail market

Since April, mainland Chinese consumers have been spoiled for choice, as instant commerce competition brought dazzling promotional subsidies and speedy deliveries right to their doorsteps. Instant commerce – a turbocharged combination of online shopping and swift dispatch – had already made a typical lunchbox order cost around US$1 or US$2, which covered the food and the delivery fee. On-demand delivery giant Meituan’s “Grouping for Good Meals” campaign, for example, offered a four-dish set meal...

Politics

37 h. ago What U.S. Retailers can Learn from China’s Social Commerce Success

What U.S. Retailers can Learn from China’s Social Commerce Success  Retail TouchPoints

Politics

3 d. ago Alibaba's Amap ranking feature is latest salvo against Meituan in China's e

Alibaba's Amap ranking feature is latest salvo against Meituan in China's e-commerce wars  Yahoo Finance

Politics

3 d. ago Alibaba’s ‘Amap Street Stars’ is latest salvo against Meituan in e

Alibaba Group Holding on Wednesday launched an artificial intelligence-powered ranking feature on its online mapping service Amap, as the tech giant doubles down on AI applications and deepens its rivalry with food delivery leader Meituan. Amap Street Stars, a ranking featured on the app’s homepage, used AI algorithms to rank offline destinations including restaurants, hotels and tourist attractions, to “advance Amap’s role as the gateway for lifestyle services”, Alibaba said at the launch event...

Politics

4 d. ago Alibaba mobilises merchants on premium Tmall site to join instant commerce drive

Alibaba Group Holding has fired another shot at on-demand delivery giant Meituan, with a campaign that brings merchants from its Tmall business-to-consumer shopping platform onto its Taobao Instant Commerce site. The campaign – dubbed “Jishigou”, which translates to instant purchase in Chinese – has seen more than 260 brands on Alibaba’s Tmall premium retail platform join its instant commerce service, the company said on Tuesday. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post. Taobao Shangou,...

Politics

5 d. ago Meituan rallies staff around expansion plans, job prospects amid delivery war

Meituan CEO Wang Xing is rallying employees around the firm’s instant commerce efforts, overseas expansion and greater social security for delivery workers, more than a week after reporting a sharp fall in second-quarter earnings amid a bruising price war with Alibaba Group Holding and JD.com. In his all-hands letter to staff over the weekend that was widely shared online, Wang said Meituan had served more than 770 million users over the past 12 months through the 14.5 million merchants on its...

Society

8 d. ago Citi Pulls Out Of UnionPay As Retail Exit From China Nears Completion

Citi Pulls Out Of UnionPay As Retail Exit From China Nears Completion  Stocktwits

Politics

8 d. ago Citi Exits UnionPay Network in China After Retail Bank Closure

Citi Exits UnionPay Network in China After Retail Bank Closure  Bloomberg.com

Economics

1 week ago Chinese delivery giant Meituan releases AI model to take on Alibaba, DeepSeek

On-demand local services giant Meituan has become the latest Chinese Big Tech company to release an open-source large language model (LLM) to market, more than two years after it acquired mainland AI start-up Light Year for US$281 million. Beijing-based Meituan, the long-standing leader of China’s food delivery market, on Monday released and open-sourced its own LLM, called LongCat-Flash-Chat, via artificial intelligence developer platforms Hugging Face and GitHub, as well as the model’s...

Politics

2 w. ago Alibaba sees strong consumer mindshare in instant commerce push

E-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding has won “consumer mindshare” amid its instant commerce push, according to company executives and analysts, to regain growth momentum in the highly competitive domestic market. The Chinese tech conglomerate’s New York-listed shares jumped 13 per cent to close at US$135 on Friday, after reporting robust earnings growth in the June quarter on the back of confidence on the mainland’s instant commerce sector. On Friday’s earnings call, Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu...

Politics

2 w. ago China’s retail investors armed with US$22 trillion are key to markets’ fortunes

In the second instalment of the two-part series on the outlook for the Hong Kong and mainland Chinese stock markets, Zhang Shidong and Yulu Ao look at the catalysts that could underpin the rally. Read part one here. When Chinese stocks hit a 10-year high this week, Jian Shi Cortesi saw it as a sign that the rally could continue as overseas investors returned to the nation’s onshore and offshore equities, which are worth a combined US$20 trillion. The Switzerland-based investment director at GAM...

Economics

2 w. ago Alibaba claims win in China’s instant commerce war as quarterly profit rises

Alibaba Group Holding, China’s e-commerce and cloud computing services giant, on Friday reported a 78 per cent surge in profit for the June quarter, while “robust AI demand” led to a 26 per cent revenue growth for its cloud business. Net income attributable to ordinary shareholders advanced 78 per cent to 43.1 billion yuan (US$6 billion) in the period, up from 24.3 billion yuan a year earlier, primarily due to “mark-to-market changes from our equity investments and gains from the disposal of the...

Events

2 w. ago Alibaba confident of winning instant commerce war as quarterly profit rises

Alibaba Group Holding, China’s e-commerce and cloud computing services giant, on Friday reported a 78 per cent surge in profit for the June quarter, while “robust AI demand” led to a 26 per cent revenue growth for its cloud business. Net income attributable to ordinary shareholders advanced 78 per cent to 43.1 billion yuan (US$6 billion) in the period, up from 24.3 billion yuan a year earlier, primarily due to “mark-to-market changes from our equity investments and gains from the disposal of the...

Events

2 w. ago Futu opens Russell Street flagship outlet to tap Hong Kong’s bull run

Futu Holdings is expanding its footprint in Hong Kong with the opening of its first flagship store and inaugural Institutional and Private Wealth Services centre in Causeway Bay, underscoring the online brokerage’s ambition to capture the city’s growing base of high-net-worth clients. The new centre, occupying two floors with a combined area of more than 7,000 sq ft (650 square metres) on Russell Street opposite Times Square, officially opens on Friday . It marks Futu’s eighth permanent service...

Politics

2 w. ago China’s retail stock traders bank on US$1 trillion bull run extending

China’s individual investors are jumping on the bandwagon of a surprising stock-market rally, eyeing more gains that they believe will be buttressed by state support and potential foreign inflows. The nation’s 240 million retail stock traders – twice the population of Japan – are cheering the breakout of the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index, which hit its highest level in a decade this month, leaving behind the trauma of two short-lived run-ups in recent years. China’s markets are now...

Economics

2 w. ago Meituan’s Profit Crumbles During Food Delivery War With Alibaba

Meituan’s Profit Crumbles During Food Delivery War With Alibaba  Bloomberg

Society

2 w. ago Meituan sales weaken, profit plummets amid ‘irrational’ delivery price war

Chinese on-demand local services giant Meituan saw second-quarter earnings fall, as it faced off against Alibaba Group Holding and JD.com in a costly instant delivery price war. Beijing-based Meituan on Wednesday reported weaker-than-expected revenue of 91.8 billion yuan (US$12.8 billion) in the quarter ended June 30. That was up 11.7 per cent from 82.2 billion yuan a year earlier, but fell short of the 93.7 billion yuan estimate by analysts. Net profit for the period tumbled 96.8 per cent to...

Economics

3 w. ago Alibaba, Ant combine forces to take on Meituan in instant commerce market

Alibaba Group Holding and its fintech affiliate Ant Group, both co-founded by Jack Ma, have joined forces to create an army of delivery service workers to defeat Meituan in the instant commerce market. A total of 22 businesses operated by Alibaba and Ant, including domestic online marketplaces Taobao and Tmall, Ant’s Alipay payment service and Alibaba Cloud, have pledged to improve the conditions of millions of delivery riders. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post. Alibaba’s move to pool...

Politics

4 w. ago China's factory output, retail sales growth slump in blow to economy

China's factory output, retail sales growth slump in blow to economy  Reuters

Economics