Photo credit: Alibaba Group
Alibaba Group’s food delivery platform Ele.me is teaming up with Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, to help merchants reach users of the short video app.
The collaboration will open Ele.me to some 600 million daily active users on ByteDance-owned Douyin, the platform said on Aug. 19.
Consumers can stream videos, browse merchant offerings and place restaurant orders, through an Ele.me mini-program embedded in the Douyin app, which Alibaba will fulfill.
“The collaboration with Douyin is a new beginning. We believe this collaboration will further enhance the digitalization capabilities of merchants,” said Yu Yongfu, president of the lifestyle services division at Alibaba, in a Mandarin statement.
The move aligns with a broader opening up of digital platforms and greater interoperability across China, the world’s second-largest economy.
China’s food delivery market is forecast to exceed RMB941.74 billion ($137.69 billion) this year, up from RMB811.7 billion ($118.7 billion) in 2021.
The penetration rate of online delivery apps increased to 52.7% by December last year, up from 42.3% in 2020, according to Shanghai-based consultancy Daxue.
