Alibaba touts rapid growth in fast-delivery service in heated race with Meituan, JD.com

The new service, which has products delivered by Ele.me, aims to fulfil online orders of food and consumer items in less than an hour. It reached 10 million daily orders within its first week of launch on April 30, the company previously said.

Alibaba is leveraging its extensive resources in online shopping, delivery and algorithms to maintain its dominant position in China’s e-commerce sector, as competition intensifies in the instant commerce segment.

Taobao Instant Commerce, accessible via Alibaba’s popular Taobao online shopping app, initially attracted users with subsidies on popular drinks, such as milk tea. However, sources familiar with the matter, who declined to be named, said drinks currently represented a small fraction of daily order volume, as demand was spread across a broader range of categories.