ByteDance is testing meals supply service by way of its Chinese language model of TikTok

ByteDance advised CNBC on Wednesday that it has been testing a sort of meals supply service in China by way of its quick video app Douyin, doubtlessly pitting itself towards main e-commerce corporations like Alibaba and Meituan.

And the corporate is now contemplating extending the service past the trial.

Douyin is the Chinese language model of TikTok that are each owned by ByteDance.

A Douyin spokesperson stated that the corporate has been “testing a characteristic in Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu that permits retailers to advertise and promote ‘group-buying’ packages to Douyin customers in these choose cities and have them delivered.”

Restaurant homeowners usually livestream on Douyin to market their enterprise. Whereas doing this, they will supply reductions and coupons for his or her meals to customers watching the movies. A number of customers can then buy that supply and select a time inside two days for the meals to reach.

The mannequin could be very totally different from Meituan and Alibaba’s Ele.me that are each on-demand meals supply companies, very similar to Uber Eats.

“We might think about increasing the characteristic to extra cities sooner or later relying on the testing outcomes. There is no such thing as a detailed timeline but,” a Douyin spokesperson stated.

The corporate has been testing the characteristic since December.

China’s meals supply business is dominated by Meituan and Ele.me.

However ByteDance’s tentative steps into the market suggests it needs a slice of the market, which was value $66.four billion in 2022, in response to analysis agency IMARC Group.

ByteDance has been dipping its toes into totally different areas of on-line procuring. Final 12 months, the corporate launched a style web site known as If Yooou exterior of China.