This "new opportunity" is coincidentally and rapidly being laid out by Alibaba, HUITONGDA NET, and Wanchen Group!

According to the Zhitong Finance APP, on August 29, during Alibaba's (09988) earnings conference call, CEO Eddie Wu clearly stated that the technology platform centered on "AI + Cloud" and the consumer platform that integrates shopping and lifestyle services are the two major strategic opportunities facing Alibaba. Eddie Wu particularly emphasized: "Alibaba's layout in the instant retail sector is not focused on competition in a single consumer category, but rather on meeting the one-stop needs of 1 billion consumers, shaping the business model of a large consumer platform in the AI era."

Coincidentally, HUITONGDA NET (09878), in which Alibaba has made a strategic investment, released its interim results on August 28, also emphasizing the layout of the "AI +" strategy, as well as new consumption tracks such as "hard discounts" and "instant retail"; meanwhile, Wanchen Group (300972.SZ), which focuses on retail wholesale, saw a strong limit-up last Friday.

The combination of technology and new consumption, integrating elements such as hard discounts and instant retail, is giving rise to a "new windfall."

Alibaba strategically invested in HUITONGDA in 2018, becoming an important strategic shareholder and the largest institutional shareholder. In August of this year, Alibaba Cloud and HUITONGDA signed a comprehensive cooperation agreement on "AI + industry" for the sinking market, targeting a vast market of 300 million rural households and 4.7 million township couple stores. Both parties will jointly develop and deploy multiple AI Agents to expand their customer base and transaction scale, while simultaneously promoting the improvement of urban-rural circulation efficiency and the monetization of industry and retail data value in the sinking market.

In the "instant retail" sector, represented by Alibaba, a trend of "flash purchase" and "instant delivery" has emerged in high-tier markets; meanwhile, its invested enterprise HUITONGDA is leveraging its deep understanding of the sinking market to transform some traditional township couple stores into new retail terminals equipped with online platform ordering and home delivery through the combination of digitalization and supply chain.

It is conceivable that in the future, following the comprehensive cooperation on AI, Alibaba and HUITONGDA may further collaborate to widely replicate the "instant retail" model in the sinking market.

On the other hand, "hard discounts" have also become a popular term for many platforms laying out the large consumer sector.

The brand "Haoxianglai" under Wanchen Group has rapidly expanded with bulk snacks, surpassing 10,000 stores, with revenue and net profit "soaring," and it saw a strong limit-up after the market opened on August 29; HUITONGDA, which boasts 250,000 member retail stores, also mentioned in its financial report released at the same time that it will focus on expanding the "hard discount" category to meet the needs of a broader customer base.

Analysis indicates that under the push of AI, the large consumer market is accelerating its evolution towards high frequency, full scenarios, and diversified experiences