This week, TMT Post (钛媒体) reported that, starting on March 1st of this year, the Chinese TikTok app (Douyin) will roll out a nationwide food delivery service. The app is already running a trial in food delivery through group buying on its app in Shanghai, Beijing, and Chengdu (“团购配送”).
Bytedance, the company behind TikTok, responded to the news by saying that it was indeed rolling out its food delivery services, but that there was no specific timetable for expansion yet. According to various reports, however, TikTok is busy recruiting staff for its food delivery business.
The topic went trending on Chinese social media on Tuesday, receiving over 320 million views on Weibo alone (#抖音将于3月1日上线全国外卖服务#), with another topic about what this move actually means garnering over 280 million views (#抖音入局外卖意味着什么#).
One related trending topic is about the Tencent-owned app Meituan, a dominant player in the Chinese food delivery market, and whether or not it should worry about TikTok entering the game (#抖音上线外卖美团慌了吗#). The Alibaba-backed Ele.me is another major player which could be affected if TikTok adds food delivery to its nationwide services.
Many commenters wondered if China’s most popular apps would all now just become like ‘super apps’ mixing up their functions, such as TikTok delivering food and Meituan entering the short video market.
Others also said that it might be a good development, as the competition means customers have more options: “For the customer, it doesn’t matter which app they order on; the one that has the best price-performance ratio is the one we’ll favor,” a typical comment said.
With over 700 million daily active users, Douyin is among the most popular social apps in China. Outside of China, its international TikTok version is also a global hit, but it is a completely separate app.
One popular comment on Weibo suggested that TikTok’s food delivery function might give online influencers a new idea of live streaming while cooking the food that you can order to get delivered, guaranteeing it is freshly prepared.
Others also jokingly suggest that food delivery drivers could do TikTok videos and live streams at the same time on how they are doing deliveries for TikTok.
The enormous popularity of the topic on Chinese social media shows that people are curious to see which way TikTok is heading, and how its role within China’s digital ecosystem might evolve in the time to come.
By Manya Koetse
Get the story behind the hashtag. Subscribe to What’s on Weibo here to receive our newsletter and get access to our latest articles:
Spotted a mistake or want to add something? Please let us know in comments below or email us. First-time commenters, please be patient – we will have to manually approve your comment before it appears.
©2023 Whatsonweibo. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce our content without permission – you can contact us at info@whatsonweibo.com.
The post Douyin Delivered to Your Doorstep: China’s TikTok App Launching Nationwide Food Delivery Services? appeared first on What's on Weibo.