A delivery worker for Meituan rides a motorcycle in Shanghai, China. — Bloomberg
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd is committing another 1bil yuan (RM591.57mil or US$140mil) of incentives to drive more traffic to one of its most popular online services, cranking up the heat on JD.com Inc and Meituan in their ongoing battle for Chinese consumers.
Alibaba is enhancing Amap – the country’s most-used Google-like navigation service – with new features like AI-powered rankings for local businesses from restaurants to hotels and tourist attractions. It’s setting aside fresh incentives to help subsidise consumers’ spending on things like car rides and dining, the company said in a statement.
