In brief: Luckin and Tencent join forces to fend off Starbucks-Alibaba alliance

Via South China Morning Post:

Tencent Holdings, the social media and payments giant, announced a partnership with Chinese coffee start-up Luckin on Thursday. The tie-up comes a month after Alibaba Group’s Ele.me unit signed a partnership with Starbucks.

China’s coffee war is heating up as tech titans enter the fray. Starbucks will start offering a delivery service this fall with the help of Alibaba’s food delivery app Ele.me.

Luckin, Starbucks’ new Chinese challenger that crossed the US$1 billion valuation mark in July, has picked Alibaba’s arch-rival Tencent as an ally to fight back.

The tie-up allows Luckin to tap into WeChat’s massive user base, develop offline retail solutions like payments powered by face recognition tech, and boost efficiency through user customization.