Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma and Alibaba Group CEO Eddie Wu were recently seen at the Ele.me (Alibaba’s food delivery platform) work area. It’s rumored they might have been participating in the weekly meeting for Taobao Instant Commerce, a part of Alibaba’s extensive e-commerce ecosystem.

This public appearance by Ma, who has been less visible in recent years, signals Alibaba’s renewed and intensified focus on the competitive instant retail market.

The instant retail market, which includes on-demand delivery services, is experiencing significant rivalry. On June 23, Alibaba’s Taobao Instant Commerce, in partnership with its delivery platform Ele.me, announced it has surpassed 60 million daily orders.

Since its launch in April 2023, retail orders have increased by 179% year-on-year, with a 96% on-time delivery rate.

Competitors are also expanding rapidly. Meituan reported over 90 million average daily payment orders by mid-June, holding approximately 70% of the meal delivery market. JD.com revealed that by June 1, its food delivery service had exceeded 25 million daily orders.

It also employed over 120,000 full-time riders, according to a media briefing during the 618 shopping festival.

In a strategic move, Alibaba announced on June 23 the integration of Ele.me and its travel platform Fliggy into its China e-commerce business group. CEO Eddie Wu described this as a step toward transforming Alibaba into a more comprehensive consumer platform.

The integration aims to improve coordination between Ele.me, Fliggy, and Taobao Flash Sale. This strategy strengthens Alibaba’s position in the instant retail market.

🔗 Source: Netease

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ The seven-year evolution of Jack Ma’s “new retail” vision

Jack Ma introduced the concept of “New Retail” in 2016, describing the integration of online, offline, and logistics businesses to create a seamless shopping experience 1.

What began with Hema (now Freshippo) supermarkets in 2016, combining shopping, dining, and logistics in one location, has evolved into today’s fierce instant retail battle between tech giants 2.

By late 2018, Alibaba had expanded to approximately 87 Hema stores, with ambitious plans to reach 2,000 locations in the following 3-5 years 2.

The current competition in instant retail represents the maturation of Ma’s original vision, where the boundaries between e-commerce and traditional retail have effectively disappeared, as he predicted seven years ago.

The integration of Ele.me and Fliggy into Alibaba’s e-commerce business group reflects Ma’s long-term strategy of building comprehensive consumer platforms rather than isolated services.

Recent Alibaba developments