Alibaba to Merge Restaurant Review Business into Map App AutoNavi
Chinese e-commerce huge Alibaba strategies to combine its dining establishment evaluation company (formerly called Koubei) with its AutoNavi map app, according to a report by regional media outlet LatePost on March 22.
Yu Yongfu, who is a partner at Alibabaalong with the President of the business’s life service sector and the Chairman of AutoNavi, specified that the organizational modifications were a technique to assist in company development.
The choice to combine Alibaba‘s dining establishment evaluation service with AutoNavi was revealed in a conference on March 22. The conference, which surpassed its prepared period of 45 minutes, did not address particular problems such as the course of the Koubei group after the merger or how Koubei-related company will be carried out by AutoNavi. In the approaching quarter, AutoNavi and Koubei will check out how to incorporate and identify the crucial instructions of advancement after a preliminary altercation duration. There have actually been no modifications in stock holding or wage for Koubei’s staff member for the time being.
Koubei, a regional way of life site established in 2004 by previous Alibaba worker Li Zhiguo, had a preliminary short-term run. Alibaba obtained Koubei and combined it with Yahoo China and Taobao, however the platform stopped working to draw in a considerable user base.
Following the failure of Koubei, Alibaba pursued other chances in the regional way of life service. In 2013, Lu Zhaoxi, then CEO of Alibabareleased the dining establishment and food app “Taodiandian,” utilizing different “shopping celebrations” to draw in users. The platform had a hard time to complete with competitors Meituan and Ele.me in regards to the choice of merchants and quality of service. As an outcome, Koubei was relaunched in 2015 with the objective of completing versus Meituan and assisting Alipay promote offline payment.
After Alibaba gotten the food shipment business Ele.me, Koubei was relegated to a lower function in the regional way of life company, primarily concentrating on dining establishment evaluations. In early 2022, LatePost reported that Koubei’s catering company protection avoided 40 cities to simply 11 cities.
Koubei has actually dealt with difficulties in its advancement, while AutoNavi has actually experienced constant development to turn into one of Alibaba‘s most effective companies recently.
At the Alibaba Financier Conference in late 2021, Yu revealed his belief that maps are the most reliable tool for browsing the real life. He revealed his hope that AutoNavi might be leveraged to make it possible for users to discover food, clothes, real estate, and transport alternatives. This would consist of not just finding refueling and charging stations however likewise finding dining establishments and scheduling hotels through the map function.
After Koubei is combined into AutoNavi, there might be increased prospective to try out extra organization endeavors. On March 21, Starbucks released a new retail channel in China called “Starbucks Curbside” through its cooperation with AutoNavi, supplying orders to clients on the go.
SEE ALSO: Starbucks Launches Curbside Service in China with AutoNavi
Koubei is presently dealing with extreme competitors, with its most significant competitor being Douyin, which boasts 700 million everyday active users. By investing more resources into the regional way of life company, Alibaba is intending to challenge Meituan‘s supremacy in the market.
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