Alibaba Comes Up With A Chinese Online Food Delivery Service

Alibaba has vowed to invest $1.25 billion to come up with a Chinese online food delivery service.

 Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has finally agreed to make a massive investment worth US$1.25 billion. This investment is made in the online Chinese food delivery known as Ele.me, as reported by a renowned business weekly, known as Caixin, on Friday.

According to the report provided by an unidentified sourced, Alibaba Group will get around 27.7% stakes in Ele.me, and this is will make it the biggest stakeholder in the venture. So far, Ele.me and Alibaba have refused to comment on the matter.

Ele.me, which apparently translates into “Hungry Now?” has become part of the everyday life in China, which comes under the criterion of online-to-offline (O2O) services. This service will comprise of facilities like reviewing apps for restaurants along with taxi hailing that will link the users on smartphones with offline business ventures.

During the beginning of 2015, the food delivery service has been successful in raising US$350 million from various investors. This includes big names, such as Tencent Holdings, Sequoia Capital, JD.com, CITIC Private Equity, and Dianping.

Things are changing with time where the locals are completely dependent on smartphones for their everyday chores. Bookings and reservations for restaurants are even done from their smartphones with convenience. The internet tycoons in the Chinese market, such as Baidu, Tencent, and Alibaba are investing heavily in services of this nature that will help them to lure more users on their ecosystem.

Alibaba has made a mark in the Information Technology sector becoming the largest ecommerce company. Tencent and Alibaba have been spending heavily in services of a similar nature where both the organizations have accumulatively invested more than US $8 billion in the previous year. The services are quite similar in nature to that which is used to hail taxis, such as Didi Dache and Kuadi Dache, as reported by Reuters.

Hence  the efforts by Alibaba in the Information Technology sector are commendable and deserve to be appreciated since both these companies are revolutionizing the Chinese market. There is a dire need for services of similar nature, as the world needs to have everything conveniently placed in the form of apps in their smartphones. A food delivery service in the form of Ele.me will not only satisfy the cravings of the masses but in return, will churn out a lot of revenue for them. All over the world, consumers need fresh food; thus, what could be better! The Chinese corporation is also excited about the investment.

Jack Ma Is A Smart Businessman Says Analysts

Analysts believe that Jack Ma is playing a smart move by putting in a bid for Hong Kong based newspaper.

It has been on going for quite a while now that the founder of the Chinese tech giant, Alibaba Group Holding, is looking to make its way in the print media business. Jack Ma seems interested in buying the South China Morning Post for a long time now however the deal is still in hanging as only interest has been confirmed from both companies. It is very well known that the Hong Kong based English newspaper is currently struggling in the market therefore analysts believe that Ma’s offer is the only way to save it from crashing down.

Jack Ma has planned to meet the buyout for the Hong Kong based newspaper in order to re launch it in a better way. Not only it will be beneficial for him or Alibaba Group but for the South China Morning Post as well. It is still unclear whether Jack Ma wants to acquire the newspaper company or Alibaba does.

The newspaper was known as one of the most biggest and famous back in the days. It was founded in 1903 and has ‘long given international readers an insider's perspective on Hong Kong and the mainland, providing a window on events from the Mao era to China's 1980s economic awakening and the 1997 handover,’ according to a source.

However it failed to keep up with the media industry and gradually subscribers, sales, and profits have evaporated. Furthermore, the company was hit by a massive downfall, industry wide, in terms of advertising revenues. Since then, South China Morning Post is unable to keep up with its standard business and the transformation phase to the digital age.

Jack Ma is very much interested and sources familiar to the matter state that the talks regarding this deal are in now an advanced phase. Mr. Ma would probably buy a stake in SCMP and several analsyts including Jackson Wong thinks that it is a clever move from the Chinese internet tycoon.

Jackson Wong adds, “He has tons of cash and he knows how to run a business in China very well. Links with Alibaba would also give the paper a necessary boost in terms of its online platform.”

Jack Ma indeed is a smart businessman. He realizes that at this moment, he has all the power to do anything in the Chinese tech sector. Therefore he along with his business, Alibaba, is trying to expand in further business categories as soon as possible. Apart from the e-commerce business, Alibaba’s Aliyun is known as the power house in cloud computing business.