Alibaba restructures operations to form life services division to take on Meituan
- The new division includes digital mapping platform AutoNavi, online travel business Fliggy, and local services platforms Ele.me and Koubei
- It is poised to ramp up competition with on-demand local services and food delivery giant Meituan
The businesses under the division all provide location-based services, according to Alibaba, which owns the South China Morning Post. The term generally stands for software technologies that apply geographic data to provide services or information to users.
Alibaba, according to Zhang’s letter, is no longer a pure e-commerce operation, but a company with multiple business lines. “We recognise the need for our organisation to be more agile in this fast-changing and highly competitive market,” he wrote.
As part of Alibaba’s latest restructuring, online grocer Tmall Supermarket and its cross-border commerce unit, Tmall Import & Export, will combine to form a new division dubbed Tmall Supermarket and Import-Export. This merged operation will be led by Alvin Liu, previously the president of Tmall Import & Export, who will report directly to Zhang, according to the same letter.