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Amap, the navigation platform of Alibaba Group Holding, recorded more than 220 million daily active users in China during the country’s week-long National Day holiday last October. Photo: Handout
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Alibaba shakes up its local consumer services business with a boost to navigation platform Amap as market competition intensifies

  • Alibaba is merging its Koubei restaurant review feature into navigation platform Amap
  • The firm’s local consumer services revenue increased 21 per cent year on year in the September quarter, driven by Amap’s strong order growth
Alibaba
Tracy Qu
Ben Jiang
Tracy Quin ShanghaiandBen Jiangin Beijing
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Alibaba Group Holding is consolidating certain operations at its local consumer services business segment, as the Chinese e-commerce giant repositions its resources to cope with increased competition in a vast mainland market that is projected to reach US$5 trillion by 2025.
Hangzhou-based Alibaba, owner of the South China Morning Post, has decided to merge its Koubei restaurant review feature into the Amap app, which provides mobile digital map, navigation and real-time traffic information, as well as a ride-hailing aggregator that competes with Didi Chuxing on the mainland.

This reorganisation, which was first reported by Chinese media 36kr on Monday, will see Zhang Liang, who is in charge of Koubei, report directly to Amap chief executive Liu Zhenfei, instead of local consumer services group head Yu Yongfu.

Alibaba did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

Alibaba Group Holding merged food and lifestyle arm Koubei with delivery unit Ele.me in 2018 to later form the foundation of the e-commerce giant’s local consumer services business segment. Photo: Handout
Formed in 2021, the local consumer services business segment of Alibaba includes food delivery unit Ele.me, online-to-offline integration service solution provider Taoxianda, Amap and online travel platform Fliggy.
The business segment’s reorganisation marks Alibaba’s attempt to stay relevant in the country’s on-demand local services industry, where market leader Meituan now competes against ByteDance-owned Douyin.
Douyin, the Chinese version of hit global short video platform TikTok, is leveraging its more than 600 million daily active users to make aggressive moves in various segments of on-demand e-commerce on the mainland.

Apart from food and grocery deliveries, on-demand local services enable online consumers to connect with offline merchants from a wide range of fields, from various entertainment establishments to pet stores and beauty parlours. This sector is expected to be worth more than 35 trillion yuan (US$5.1 trillion) by 2025, according to market research firm iResearch.

Meituan and Ele.me head back to court in March in fight over smart locker tech

Alibaba last year reported that local consumer services revenue increased 21 per cent in the September quarter to 13.07 billion yuan, up from 10.81 billion yuan a year earlier.

That was mainly driven by strong order growth at its Amap business. During the week-long National Day holiday in October, Amap achieved a record high of more than 220 million daily active users in China, according to Alibaba.

The company’s local consumer services segment also narrowed its losses in the third quarter to 3.49 billion yuan, from 6.53 billion yuan the previous year, on the back of improving business operations at Ele.me.

Alibaba is expected to report its fourth-quarter financial results this Thursday.

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