Alibaba Group Holding announced that its new on-demand delivery service reached 10 million daily orders during a recent promotional campaign.

Launched on April 30, 2025 the service operates under the Taobao Instant Commerce platform.

As part of the promotion, Taobao offered 100 million free drinks, including milk tea and coffee, to users.

This initiative marks Alibaba’s entry into the expanding “instant commerce” market.

This market focuses on delivering items like food, electronics, and cosmetics within an hour.

🔗 Source: South China Morning Post

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ China’s e-commerce giants follow historical pattern of subsidy-driven competition

Alibaba’s promotion offering 100 million free drinks repeats a proven customer acquisition strategy that has defined Chinese e-commerce for over two decades.

This approach parallels how Taobao initially offered free listings to challenge eBay in China, which ultimately led to eBay’s exit from the Chinese market after losing significant market share 1.

The intense competition between JD.com, Meituan, and Alibaba in instant commerce follows this established pattern, with companies willing to absorb significant short-term losses to secure market dominance.

Market researchers project this competition will likely lead to price wars among major players, impacting profitability, especially for companies with high asset investments 2.

In China’s e-commerce landscape, these promotional battles have typically resulted in a winner-takes-most outcome, with early adoption advantages translating to long-term market leadership.

2️⃣ Ecosystem advantages enable rapid scaling of new services

Alibaba’s quick achievement of 10 million daily orders demonstrates how established platforms can leverage their existing ecosystems to rapidly scale new ventures.

The company is utilizing its Ele.me delivery network (acquired in 2018) alongside Taobao’s massive user base of over 230 million customers who spent $248 billion on its platforms as of 2014 1.

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