Eliza Wong
After burning through tens of billions, Meituan and Douyin believed they were the last players standing in China’s local services battle. But from the sidelines, Alibaba had been watching intently. On September 10th, during Alibaba’s 26th anniversary, CEO Daniel Zhang (张勇) activated a chess piece Jack Ma (马云) placed eleven years earlier: Amap. No longer content as a silent navigation tool, Amap entered the fray with over $1.1 billion in subsidies and an allegedly unfakeable ‘Street Sweeping List,’ directly challenging Meituan and Douyin on their home turf. This move represents Alibaba’s most aggressive push into local services in years, signaling the return of the company’s famous competitive intensity.
Amap’s Strategic Transformation
Amap’s evolution from simple navigation tool to local services contender didn’t happen overnight. The project began taking shape three months earlier when a dedicated team was stationed at Alibaba’s Hangzhou headquarters with unusually high security clearance.
The Secret Project
From late June, Amap established a special project team at Alibaba’s global headquarters in Hangzhou, even securing exclusive space in the Xixi Park C4 building. According to insiders, the security protocols were so strict that other departments couldn’t access the area. This secrecy fueled speculation about Alibaba’s next big move, with guesses ranging from flash sales upgrades to major AI announcements.
From Navigation to Transaction Platform
Amap is now positioning itself as a transaction platform rather than just a mapping service. The company’s internal consensus is to develop Amap into an offline entry point comparable to Taobao. This strategic shift has been brewing for some time, with Alibaba previously attempting to enter local services through Taobao and Alipay, but struggling with user mindset alignment.
The Street Sweeping List Innovation
At the heart of Amap’s local services push is its innovative ‘Street Sweeping List,’ which uses real user behavior and credit data to create what it claims is an unfakeable ranking system.
Building Trust Through Authenticity
Amap CEO Guo Ning believes authenticity is the lifeblood of any ranking system. ‘The Amap Street Sweeping List will never be commercialized,’ he stated emphatically. The platform will integrate Alipay’s Sesame Credit system to filter out fake and noisy reviews, addressing a critical pain point in China’s local services market where ‘brushing for traffic’ and ‘exchanging gifts for positive reviews’ have become common practices.
Data-Driven Discoveries
The rankings draw from massive behavioral data:
– 5132 million real users contributed data
– 228 billion kilometers of travel routes analyzed
– 1.3 billion navigation behaviors tracked
– 1.18 million stores identified through repeat visits
This data has produced unique categories like the ‘Tire Wear List’ (showing establishments people will travel across town to visit) and the ‘Regular Customer List’ (representing the most genuine recognition of quality and taste).
Massive Subsidies and Support Programs
Amap isn’t relying solely on innovative technology to win market share. The company has deployed enormous financial resources to accelerate market penetration.
The ‘Vibrant Stores Support Program’
Upon launching the Street Sweeping List, Amap announced comprehensive support measures:
– $290 million in travel and transaction vouchers
– 50 million精准流量 exposures for quality small stores through homepage AI recommendations and search term promotions
– $4.1 million in incentives for content creation platforms
Full Ecosystem Approach
Amap has essentially injected catalysts into every环节 of the in-store transaction process. This comprehensive approach demonstrates Alibaba’s commitment to making Amap a central player in local services rather than just another feature.
Competitive Landscape Reshuffle
Alibaba’s reentry into local services has fundamentally altered the competitive dynamics that had settled into a Meituan-Douyin duopoly.
Meituan’s Response
On the same day as Amap’s announcement, Meituan hastily ‘relaunched’ quality food delivery services, emphasizing ‘AI + real high scores’ while throwing substantial subsidies into the battle. For the first time, Meituan faces credible competition on two fronts.
Douyin’s Position
Douyin, which only began pushing into local services in 2021, has used its massive traffic advantage to achieve rapid growth with a GMV target reaching $124 billion this year. The platform has also been working on ‘AI + quality food delivery’ to compete directly with Meituan.
Changing Battle Lines
The nature of competition has shifted from competing to become the single, dominant life services入口 to capturing the most valuable and critical nodes in users’ fragmented cross-platform consumption journeys. Amap’s strategy aims to influence user choices through its authentically generated rankings while ultimately capturing the complete transaction闭环.
Alibaba’s Big Consumption Platform Vision
Amap’s move represents a crucial component of CEO Daniel Zhang’s (张勇) ‘Big Consumption Platform’ strategy. If ‘Taobao Flash Sales’ serves as the pillar for meeting users’ home delivery needs, then Amap becomes the critical hub for all destination scenarios, completing the final piece of Alibaba’s consumption ecosystem.
Integration With Other Alibaba Services
Amap will serve as both a showcase for local business and enable deeper integration with other Alibaba products:
– Ele.me is testing in-store services in some regions
– Taobao Flash Sales is exploring follow-up coordination
– The previously dormant Koubei network has been reactivated
The Data Advantage
Amap brings unique advantages to the local services battle that neither Meituan nor Douyin can easily replicate.
Massive User Base and Usage
Amap CEO Guo Ning revealed impressive metrics:
– Covers over 7 million restaurant locations nationwide
– 120 million daily life services-related searches
– 13 million daily navigations to life services categories
Natural User Intent
Unlike platforms where users browse passively, Amap users typically have明确出行和目的地消费需求. Combining in-store services with map navigation功能 creates a natural ‘find location-navigate-in-store consumption’闭环 that proves more efficient than building new platforms from scratch or guiding users from Taobao/Tmall to physical stores.
Future Implications and Strategic Direction
Amap’s current ‘content-only’ approach is clearly not the strategic endgame. As Alibaba deepens its in-store business, Amap will inevitably move into transaction processing, potentially growing into a consumption入口 as significant as Taobao on its own platform.
Beyond AI Narrative
While markets have focused almost exclusively on Alibaba’s AI narrative, Amap’s entry provides an equally important but more grounded dimension to the company’s strategy. This dimension is rooted in streets and alleys rather than the cloud. While AI defines the future of the digital world, Amap’s mission is to use technology to reconstruct and activate the physical world filled with real transactions and experiences.
Dual World Strategy
Alibaba’s future value will depend not only on the outcome of the AI race but also on its ability to seamlessly connect the digital and physical worlds, positioning itself as true infrastructure for the era of big consumption.
Amap’s bold move signals that Alibaba, under Daniel Zhang’s (张勇) leadership, is rediscovering its aggressive competitive posture. This marks not just the beginning of a new war in local services but potentially the dawn of a new era in China’s internet giant competition. The company that best bridges digital convenience with physical experience will likely emerge as the ultimate winner in this high-stakes battle for China’s local services market.
The local services revolution is underway, and consumers stand to benefit from improved discovery experiences, more authentic recommendations, and potentially better service quality as platforms compete on merit rather than manipulation. For businesses, particularly smaller establishments that excel at service but struggle with digital marketing, Amap’s approach could level the playing field and create new growth opportunities.
To stay ahead of these developments, businesses should monitor platform policy changes, consider diversifying their online presence across multiple platforms, and focus on delivering genuine quality that will be recognized by authentic ranking systems. Consumers should explore these new discovery tools while remaining mindful that no system is perfect, and personal experience remains the ultimate validator of quality.
