In brief: Digi-cafe Luckin eyes Meituan partnership to take on Alibaba-Starbucks alliance

Chinese startup Luckin Coffee is planning a tie-up with Meituan Dianping to deliver coffee and other food products through the on-demand giant’s delivery network in China, according to people familiar with the situation.

The planned tie-up comes after global coffee giant Starbucks announced a partnership with Alibaba’s food-delivery arm Ele.me in August to carry out deliveries in China.

Source: South China Morning Post

The proposed partnership will reportedly allow users in over 20 Chinese cities to order from the tech-enabled cafe Luckin through Meituan Waimai, Meituan Dianping’s delivery app.

Customers currently place their coffee and food orders through Luckin’s app, with delivery fulfilled by logistics firm SF-Express.

“For Luckin, [the deal means] it can expand further from offline to online in the coffee retail business,” said Zhang Yi, CEO of mobile internet consultancy iiMedia Research Institute. “For Meituan, it might not be aiming for more orders from Luckin […] but it wants to send a signal to other warm-food providers that it can deliver a cup of warm coffee in a timely manner.”

Earlier this month, Luckin raised US$200 million from investors, including Singaporean sovereign fund GIC and China International Capital Corp.

Starbucks teamed up with Alibaba subsidiary Ele.me in August after falling sales in China prompted the US coffee behemoth to introduce on-demand delivery.