Ele.me steps up investments as on-demand delivery battle with rival Meituan-Dianping intensifies
Ele.me, a subsidiary of e-commerce giant Alibaba, aims to capture at least 50 per cent of China’s growing food delivery market in the near term
Ele.me plans to ramp up investments in its operations, following its acquisition by e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding in April, amid increased competition from rival Meituan-Dianping for leadership in China’s multibillion-dollar on-demand delivery services market.
Shanghai-based Ele.me’s investment strategy would expand its business beyond transporting meals to consumers into other on-demand services, potentially delivering flowers and over-the-counter medication from 30 minutes to an hour of receiving an order.
“Alibaba’s business has traditionally revolved around consumers and internet services, and we’ve since moved into digital entertainment with platforms like Youku-Tudou,” Ele.me chief executive Wang Lei said in an interview in Hong Kong on Monday. “Now we are also moving in the direction of offering local services to customers.”
Ele.me’s “investment phase” was geared to help it win market share and build up a logistics infrastructure that would enable the company to dispatch orders within 30 minutes all across the country, according to Wang. He took over as chief executive from co-founder Zhang Xuhao in April, when Alibaba completed its takeover of Ele.me.
There are currently two million active merchants on Ele.me’s platform. The company has a delivery crew of about three million as well as operations in 670 cities and more than 1,000 counties.