Meituan is going e-commerce while Alibaba heightens local services

The competition between Meituan and Alibaba is scaling up – the two longtime rivals are both pushing into each other’s home turf. Meituan recently augmented its products categories with new listings including smartphones, books, healthcare and cosmetics, which are guaranteed speedy delivery within several hours. On the other hand, Alibaba is enhancing local lifestyle services by offering coupons and incentives within Ele.me and Koubei to attract more users. Whether the moves will alter customers’ preferences of where to buy can be something worthy of a closer watch.