Alibaba Rewrites the Rules of Offline Discovery

Alibaba continues to innovative in the local life services market with an exciting new feature on Amap.

Alibaba made a splash this spring by investing big in instant commerce, taking up to 50% of that market in a matter of months. But the other side of the coin for local life services is “to-destination”: when consumers use online platforms to decide where to eat and shop offline. That’s where Alibaba’s Amap comes in.

Amap is the go-to mapping and navigation app in China—and similar to Google Maps, has long featured a starred review system for offline businesses like restaurants and hotels. It also has a built-in car hailing feature.

But yesterday, Alibaba launched “Amap Street Stars”, an AI-powered recommendation and ranking tool for local businesses. The guiding aim is authenticity. A major concern for local businesses around the world is unfair negative reviews and review gamification. Amap’s new feature leverages the platform’s robust data on user searches, navigations to local businesses, and reviews to create an authentic guide for restaurants and hotels in 300 cities.

Along with RMB 1 billion in subsidies for transportation and offline spending announced today, this new feature should drive traffic and spending at millions of local businesses.

Chinese consumer behaviour has already shifted since Alibaba went big on instant commerce, with Meituan’s dominance of that market slipping. And now increasingly offline shopping decisions will run through Alibaba’s mapping app.