The Most Exciting 24 Hours in the History of Food Delivery: The Birth of 200 Million "Massive" Orders | In - Depth Analysis

Text by Ren Cairu and Peng Qian

Edited by Qiao Qian and Yang Xuan

9:00, Taobao: Fighting on Two Fronts, Launching an Assault

July 5th, an ordinary Saturday in the middle of summer, was anything but ordinary for Xiao Yu.

As an Ele.me delivery rider in Yuzhong District, Chongqing, she received a "battle" signal two or three days ago: all morning - shift staff were required to arrive at work one hour earlier than usual because "the number of orders in the next few days will be extremely high."

At 9 a.m. that day, Xiao Yu was pulled into a DingTalk meeting. After synchronizing the precautions with her colleagues, she immediately called her team members, saying, "Hurry up and come out to make money. There are tons of orders."

At the same moment, the "war room" of Taobao Flash Sale in Xixi Park, Hangzhou, was already filled with people from various business lines. They were analyzing data, monitoring trends, communicating with merchants, distributing subsidies according to the rhythm, and moving towards their goals.

This was a carefully - planned battle. On July 5th, the first Saturday after the start of the takeaway peak season, Taobao Flash Sale decided to launch an assault on Meituan, the leader in the takeaway market.

Speculations about the number of assault orders had been circulating in the industry since early morning. According to 36Kr, Alibaba internally estimated that the number of orders on this day could reach 70 million. In contrast, Meituan Takeaway's average daily order volume is around 90 million.

At least one week before, top - tier merchants on Ele.me received notices to prepare sufficient goods and staff. Some Meituan employees also got the intelligence. Some of them "just laughed it off," believing that Taobao's delivery capacity was insufficient to support such a large number of orders; others began to get nervous and closely monitored the data of both sides early that day, trying to figure out the opponent's real situation.

Even earlier, on June 23rd, the daily order volume of Taobao Flash Sale had exceeded 60 million. It was this good report card that enabled Taobao Flash Sale to receive a massive 50 billion yuan investment from the top management, giving it the confidence to launch an assault on Meituan, the industry leader.

Taobao Flash Sale's ambition in this battle is to raise the order volume of the retail segment to a new level beyond food delivery orders.

This is also the broader blueprint for e - commerce companies in the takeaway business - using near - field e - commerce to support far - field e - commerce.

Jiang Fan once said at an Alibaba earnings conference, "Flash Sale is a high - frequency scenario for Taobao. It will better reflect user activity and scale, and there will be more possibilities for integration between Taobao and near - field e - commerce." Liu Qiangdong, the founder of JD.com, also said in a recent exchange, "The money we lose in the takeaway business is still more cost - effective than the money we spend on buying traffic from Douyin and Tencent."

"With an investment of 50 billion yuan, the company naturally hopes that not only food delivery orders will increase, but retail orders also need to be rapidly boosted," a Taobao employee told 36Kr.

Tension and anticipation intertwined among the employees. On the night of July 4th, many people in Taobao Flash Sale's retail division didn't fall asleep until the early hours of the morning and rushed to check the data at 7 a.m. the next day. An employee involved in the battle told 36Kr, "Many business personnel of the opponent arrived in the cities where top - tier merchants are located one day in advance and moved into the merchants' offices on the day, trying to disrupt this assault."

The first wave of "pressure intelligence" came back at 9 a.m. Some top - tier retail merchants reported that they were asked to increase the "minimum order amount" on the Taobao platform. Subsidies directly affect users' ordering decisions, but the "minimum order amount" is also crucial. Retail orders are not as "essential" as food delivery orders. If the minimum order amount is too high, users won't place orders; if it's too low, it will result in low - quality, low - price "shabby orders" for the platform.

Ele.me staff rushed to the offices of key merchants around 10 a.m. At many merchants' places, salespeople from both sides confronted each other on the spot. Despite the consensus of "no physical conflict," under the successive waves of bilateral pressure, "the merchants were in a very awkward situation that day."

Looking back further, JD.com, which seemed "peaceful" on July 5th, was actually the initial trigger for this fierce takeaway battle.

In the takeaway industry, Meituan and Ele.me had coexisted peacefully for many years. Before this year, no one could have predicted that JD.com would be the disruptor in the new round of the takeaway war.

JD.com's moves were fast, accurate, and ruthless: offering commission - free services to merchants, paying the five social insurances and one housing fund for riders, having founder Liu Qiangdong personally deliver orders, and providing subsidies to consumers... As a result, the order volume climbed steadily. On April 15th, April 22nd, May 14th, and June 1st, JD.com publicly announced that its takeaway order volume had exceeded 5 million, 10 million, 20 million, and 25 million respectively.

JD.com's initiative in promoting "e - commerce takeaway" objectively created a favorable situation for Alibaba. "We're also taking a gamble. By educating the market together with JD.com, we aim to cultivate consumers' habit of ordering takeaways through e - commerce apps, so that they don't need to install dedicated takeaway apps anymore," a Taobao employee told 36Kr.

From another perspective, Alibaba couldn't just sit back and watch JD.com become the second - largest player in the takeaway market at such a rapid pace.

Compared with JD.com, which is starting from scratch, Alibaba has more cards in hand. Alibaba's established businesses such as Ele.me and Hema are successive layouts in the instant retail field. At the earnings conference in February 2024, Alibaba CEO Wu Yongming once again emphasized the strategic value of near - field e - commerce.

In the same year, Taobao launched "Taobao Delivery in One Hour" and connected with Ele.me's Hummingbird Delivery. It began to offer 30 - minute delivery of digital 3C products, clothing, supermarket goods, etc. within Taobao - this was an important "prelude" and preparation for Taobao to officially enter the takeaway business.

The aggressive JD.com accelerated the launch of "Taobao Flash Sale."

"Taobao Flash Sale" is an upgraded version of "Taobao Delivery in One Hour." The core changes are the introduction of Ele.me's takeaway supply and the occupation of the largest first - level traffic entrance on the Taobao app's homepage.

The name "Flash Sale" also has profound meaning. It has the same name as Meituan's non - food business. The reason for using "Flash Sale" instead of "Takeaway" directly is that "Meituan has a strong brand image in the takeaway field, but the concept of 'Flash Sale' is still up for grabs, and whoever seizes it first wins," a senior person in the takeaway industry told 36Kr.

According to 36Kr, this product was launched nearly two months earlier than the original plan of the 618 promotion. It was launched in 50 cities on April 30th. "The products of Taobao and Ele.me had just completed the docking, and there was no time for optimization. For a while, users couldn't directly see the takeaway shopping cart on the Taobao page," a Taobao employee close to the project told 36Kr.

The subsidy for consumers was also finalized temporarily at a high - level Taobao meeting in the last week of April at Taotian Group. The amount was increased from the original billions to over 10 billion yuan.

During the May Day holiday, there were more people traveling and fewer people ordering takeaways, but the result of the first battle was unexpected. According to 36Kr, Taobao internally estimated that it would take more than ten days for Taobao Flash Sale's order volume to exceed 10 million, but it actually only took six days.

Starting from April 30th, the teams of Taotian Group and Ele.me officially entered a wartime state.

Alibaba's determination was not only reflected in the order volume. 36Kr learned that in late May, Alibaba began to discuss the possibility of integrating the businesses of Taotian Group and Ele.me. Three days after the end of the 618 promotion, Alibaba Group CEO Wu Yongming announced that Ele.me and Fliggy would be incorporated into the restructured Alibaba China E - commerce Business Group and report to Jiang Fan, the CEO of Taotian Group.

"Ele.me and Fliggy will continue to maintain a corporate management model, and their business decision - making and execution will be aligned with the goals of the China E - commerce Business Group," Wu Yongming said. He also specifically mentioned that this was a strategic upgrade "from an e - commerce platform to a large - scale consumer platform."

Just 21 days after reaching 10 million orders, Taobao Flash Sale exceeded 40 million orders on May 26th. According to 36Kr, because the time between 30 million and 40 million orders was very short, only a few days apart, Taobao Flash Sale didn't even have time to make a promotional poster for the 30 - million - order milestone.

"Skipping 20 million and 30 million orders and directly announcing 40 million orders (20 million on the Taobao side and 20 million on the Ele.me side) has another meaning, which is that Taobao achieved in just over 20 days what took JD.com more than two months," a Taobao employee told 36Kr.

Previously, Meituan had been closely monitoring the rapidly growing JD.com. For example, JD.com hoped to create a "come - from - behind" benchmark in Suqian, Liu Qiangdong's hometown, through concentrated subsidies and large - scale promotions to turn the tables. In response, Meituan established a special subsidy team in Suqian to hold onto its market share.

"Objectively, Meituan is quite grateful to Alibaba," a mid - to - high - level Meituan employee told 36Kr. "Normally, it should be the market leader that spends money to contain the third - largest player, but unexpectedly, the second - largest player took action quickly."

However, the achievements of reaching 10 million and 40 million orders like a "sudden leap" made many people at Meituan realize for the first time that Taobao was going all out to "start a second - world - war - style battle," and it was the more immediate threat.

16:00, Meituan: Facing a Fierce Opponent, Rising to the Challenge

Many Meituan employees returned to the company temporarily on the afternoon of July 5th.

"We need to charge forward," Meituan's Core Local Commerce CEO Wang Puzhong finally decided that afternoon. The assault was commanded by Xue Bing and Xiao Kun. Xue Bing is the person - in - charge of Meituan's takeaway business, and Xiao Kun is the person - in - charge of Meituan's Flash Sale. Both report to Wang Puzhong. Dozens of business backbones were urgently summoned to Meituan's headquarters in Hengdian. A large meeting room immediately became the battle center.

Meituan found that Taobao's subsidies were getting heavier and more strategic. In the morning, it heavily subsidized non - food items, with no minimum order amount and free delivery fees combined with cash vouchers to boost the order volume. During the peak dining hours, it shifted the large - scale subsidies to food. By noon, the order volume increased extremely rapidly.

"They not only subsidized very aggressively. They even dispatched orders that required a one - hour wait in the order - grabbing hall, which shows their strong determination. They might really reach 80 million orders," a Meituan employee involved in the battle that day told 36Kr.

Once Taobao Flash Sale achieved 80 million orders, Meituan, with a daily order volume of around 90 million, would see its market share plummet on that day. "Consumer perception, market perception, and the capital market would all be affected."

Meituan's summer battle this year had the theme of "Fight this summer to determine the outcome" and was progressing in an orderly manner. The high - growth Pinhaofan and Shenqiangshou were leading the charge in terms of order volume. It was originally planned to conduct a round of subsidies from July 5th to July 8th, "more than double the previous subsidies."

"We also made preparations, but we didn't expect them to suddenly increase the subsidies for consumers on the afternoon of the 5th," the founder of a Chinese fast - food chain brand told 36Kr.

"Our bottom line is that we must not lose in terms of order volume." Within two to three hours, Meituan Takeaway rolled out the subsidies that were originally planned to be carried out gradually by region across the country. "It was so exciting," a Meituan employee described the situation at that time.

Around 4 p.m., Meituan's subsidies began to be released on a large scale. Starting with free - of - charge milk tea vouchers, users who successfully got the "0 - yuan purchase" cheered on social platforms. Then, Meituan's large - value vouchers extended from milk tea to more categories. "Buy for 18 yuan, get 18 yuan off" and inflated red envelopes almost formed a "saturation attack." It was hard for users not to place an order once they opened the app.

Riders were also a key target of the subsidies. A Meituan rider told 36Kr that on normal days, the average delivery fee per order during peak hours was 4.7 yuan, but on July 5th, he received at least 10 yuan per order.

With the combined subsidies from the two platforms, milk tea and coffee shops in many cities across the country were swamped with orders. "The stacks of orders were as thick as books, and more than a dozen delivery riders were waiting in front of the food - preparation counter," Ele.me rider Xiao Yu told 36Kr. Riders and store clerks encouraged each other. Xiao Yu told the riders she knew, "Don't rush them. Let them take their time."

The utilization rate of delivery capacity was pushed to the limit. Xiao Yu remembered that for an order that was usually within 700 - 800 meters and had a 30 - minute delivery limit, the longest - taking order on July 5th took 2 hours and 50 minutes. "I've never experienced anything like this before. We joked that this was the longest battle in our lives."

Around 4 p.m., Xiao Yu received a notice saying that "there will be no penalty for orders delayed by more than 10 minutes." "The guys around me were extremely happy." A Meituan Leap - Runner rider remembered that from 5 p.m. to 12 a.m. that day, Meituan launched an activity where riders who completed 40 orders would get a 180 - yuan reward. "I completed more than 30 orders and got more than 90 yuan."

The person - in - charge of the online business of a beverage brand told 36Kr that the order volume that day far exceeded expectations. The headquarters opened an "emergency replenishment channel" for the stores, but some stores still couldn't handle the orders and had to temporarily divert the orders to nearby stores and add more staff.

In the past, Meituan established subsidy plans in advance for many of its order - volume peaks and executed them with clear expectations. It also attached great importance to the risk - control mechanism to prevent merchants from brushing orders and consumers from maliciously taking advantage of the subsidies. However, the assault on July 5th was different. No one knew how high the order volume would go, and "the risk - control factor was somewhat overlooked."

At 6 p.m., the topic "#Meituan crashed#" trended on Weibo. Many merchants posted on social media that they had completed orders in a hurry but couldn't see the settlement price, and there was also about a 5 - minute payment anomaly on the user side. Meituan first sent messages to merchants to calm their nerves and then issued an emergency announcement at 8 p.m., saying that "the order volume exceeded the historical peak, triggering server throttling." The settlement of affected merchants would be retroactively adjusted later and would not be affected.

Taobao Flash Sale hopes to use takeaway traffic to drive an increase in non - food orders and even e - commerce GMV. However, Meituan had previously judged that Taobao's entry into the takeaway business didn't have an obvious impact on the retail business.

Therefore, a Meituan insider told 36Kr that on July 5th, if the increase in Taobao Flash Sale's orders came from food and beverages, there was no need to be overly nervous. But the sudden sharp increase in non - food orders such as rice, flour, and cooking oil was "quite alarming."