
Alibaba tops Meituan's China on-demand delivery, fuelled by 1 million cups of tea daily
Alibaba, which owns the South China Morning Post, did not respond to requests for comment. Meituan did not respond either.
The data showed that subsidies worked in China's ultra-competitive market. The industry was shifting from Meituan's 'near-monopoly to near-duopoly' with Alibaba's emergence, as the challenger lavished generous subsidies on customers, delivery riders and merchants to gain market share, Morgan Stanley said. The two companies are likely to have equal shares of China's on-demand delivery market by 2030, the bank said.
Delivery riders on the streets of Shanghai on November 29, 2023. Photo: Shutterstock
In food delivery, Meituan is set to dominate the market with a 75 per cent share in terms of gross transaction value by 2030, but its share in the entire instant commerce industry may fall to 48 per cent, almost the same as the 47 per cent share taken by Alibaba, according to Morgan Stanley's estimates.

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