In recent days, the instant retail battle triggered by JD.com has seen several new developments. In summary, the boundaries of competition are continuously expanding, and more competitors are being drawn into the fray, either actively or passively.

Dolphin Research believes this indicates a scenario where the broad online retail/service platforms may face a level of competition no less intense than the 'Hundred Regiments Battle,' 'Community Group Buying,' or 'Price Wars,' encompassing nearly all major players, entering an 'era of chaotic battles' without clear business boundaries.

All major internet companies with significant user and traffic scale may find themselves attacking competitors' core businesses on multiple fronts while also defending against similar incursions into their own core businesses. Historically, during such chaotic battles, almost everyone ends up as losers, and the aftermath is often a 'messy battlefield.'

Chronologically, the recent developments are as follows:

1. Firstly, JD.com's founder Richard Liu, in a small-scale communication, high-profile confirmed that JD.com will not only enter the food delivery sector but also the hotel and travel OTA sector, establishing a new channel business unit to handle these areas. This marks the expansion of the competition from instant retail to the hotel and travel industry. From Richard Liu's words, Dolphin Research believes there is a significant possibility of further expansion into in-store business.

The original text from LatePost reports: 'For the supply chain of catering, the supply chain of hotels, in the future, we will also have the supply chain for beauty, medical aesthetics, hospitals, and all the various formats you see on the roadside like head massage and foot washing. We will provide supply chain services to them through new channels.'

2. Last weekend, LatePost reported that Pinduoduo is building warehouses in some first-tier cities, with plans to launch instant delivery services as early as August, delivering goods to the door with timeliness similar to JD.com's express delivery. The report also claimed that Pinduoduo currently has no intention of joining the instant retail battle or involving itself in food delivery.

Dolphin Research believes that with Pinduoduo's domestic main site no longer having a clear growth advantage and overseas Temu significantly impacted by geopolitical factors, it is indeed time to consider new investment and growth directions. In this context, optimizing the slightly 'outdated' Duoduo Maicai (next-day delivery under the community group buying model) to a faster instant delivery model is a preliminary entry point.

However, Dolphin Research believes that although the company currently denies it, Pinduoduo may not stop there. If the instant delivery business of Duoduo Maicai achieves some success, once the front warehouse network and instant delivery capabilities are initially established, it may not be unlikely to attempt platform-type instant delivery businesses similar to Meituan Flash Purchase, or even food delivery.

3. Finally, today Alibaba also announced the integration of Ele.me and Fliggy into the China E-commerce Business Group, reporting to Jiang Fan. Although the announcement did not disclose other information besides the organizational structure change, its intention is clearly similar to JD.com's.

Integrating Ele.me into the China E-commerce Business Group is evidently to break the boundaries between product instant delivery (Taobao Flash Delivery) and food instant delivery (Ele.me), integrating resources to better compete in the broadly defined instant retail industry. As for integrating Fliggy (hotel and travel business) into the China E-commerce Business Group, its intention and possible effects are not yet clear. Besides a certain mutual traffic diversion effect, what other synergies can be achieved remains to be seen.

What is clear now is that similar moves by Alibaba and JD.com indicate that e-commerce, instant retail, and hotel and travel (which may later include in-store business) will further integrate, with business boundaries becoming more blurred. Future competition in the internet industry may turn into a 'great chaotic battle' encompassing various businesses and players.

$PDD(PDD.US) $MEITUAN(03690.HK) $JD.com(JD.US) $BABA-W(09988.HK)