Aiming at Meituan! Alibaba will hold a press conference tomorrow, possibly unveiling two major businesses

Alibaba is preparing to launch a major offensive in the local life services market, directly targeting the core territory of industry giant Meituan.

According to Hard AI news, on the morning of September 10, Alibaba will hold a significant business conference at its headquarters in Xixi C District, Hangzhou. It is understood that the relevant project has been operating internally under high-level confidentiality for several months, but Alibaba has not disclosed the specific content of the conference. Market rumors suggest that Alibaba will unveil a brand new group buying product and evaluation system. If true, this business will synergize with the previous "flash purchase," marking Alibaba's full-scale effort in the local life scene.

Additionally, according to a source cited by Sina Technology, this business adjustment involves a significant layout in the local life services sector, including the relaunch of Koubei and the development of self-operated group buying services by Amap, aiming to reconstruct the local life consumption decision-making system, benchmarking against industry giants like Meituan's Dianping. This marks the third major relaunch of Koubei since its acquisition in 2008.

The market has responded positively to this series of significant moves, pushing Alibaba's U.S. stock up 3% in pre-market trading.

Meanwhile, its main competitor Meituan's Hong Kong stock closed down 2.3%.

Relaunch of Koubei and Amap's Entry, Alibaba's Combination Punch Emerges

According to information disclosed by insiders to Sina Technology, Alibaba's adjustment firstly focuses on the highly anticipated relaunch of "Koubei."

Koubei was founded in 2004, and after being acquired by Alibaba, its positioning and affiliation have undergone multiple changes. This relaunch has a very clear strategic goal: to build a new, independent consumer decision-making evaluation system using its own products. This system will integrate merchant consumption orders and evaluation data from Ele.me, Amap, and Alipay, directly benchmarking against Meituan's Dianping.

Another part of the changes will be executed by Amap. It has been revealed that Amap will develop self-operated group buying services and is currently actively building related product capabilities. This move means that Amap will further deepen into the transaction link from being a map and navigation tool, forming a "decision + transaction" closed loop with Koubei's evaluation system, strengthening Alibaba's penetration in the local life scene.

Before the official announcement, the capital market has already reacted positively to Alibaba's new moves. Following a more than 4% surge in Alibaba's U.S. stock price on the evening of September 8, its Hong Kong stock also performed well on September 9. Yesterday, there was a net inflow of HKD 5.146 billion into Alibaba through the Hong Kong Stock Connect

The "Flash Purchase" Momentum is Strong, Instant Retail Becomes a New Growth Point

Alibaba's efforts in the in-store business are built on the significant progress its instant retail business has already achieved.

Since April 2024, the competition in food delivery and instant retail has become increasingly fierce. Meituan launched a three-year food delivery support plan worth RMB 100 billion on April 14 and announced on May 26 that it would "spare no effort to win the competition." JD.com initiated a one-year food delivery subsidy project worth RMB 10 billion on April 11.

In contrast, Alibaba's "food delivery war" started relatively late, launching a one-year food delivery subsidy plan worth RMB 50 billion on July 2.

In Alibaba's quarterly financial report for the period ending in June, adjusted EBITA saw a year-on-year decline. Haitong International believes this is mainly due to investments in the TaoTian flash purchase business, user acquisition expenses, and technology research and development investments, which also indirectly confirms the company's strategic commitment in this area.

According to previous reports from Chasing Wind Trading Desk, HSBC stated in a research report in July that Alibaba will continue to increase investments in instant retail (Insta) and food delivery (FD) businesses in the coming quarters. Although Alibaba's significant investments in food delivery and instant retail will drag down short-term profits, these factors have largely been reflected in the stock price. Based on a cloud computing growth rate of over 20% and AI leading advantages, HSBC maintains a "Buy" rating with a target price of $150.

In addition to local life services, in the cloud business, a report titled "China AI Cloud Market, 1H25" released by market research firm Omdia shows that Alibaba Cloud holds a market share of 35.8% in China's AI cloud market, ranking first, surpassing the combined market share of the second to fourth places.

The report suggests that generative AI is igniting the AI cloud market, with an expected growth of 148% by 2025. Some analysts point out that AI is reconstructing the entire cloud service system, and in the future, there may only be MaaS (Model as a Service) and Agent services. Alibaba's investments and technological accumulation in AI are expected to create differentiated advantages, consolidating its market leadership while bringing higher gross margins and revenue growth, thereby building a deeper moat for the company's long-term development