Alibaba offers $7 billion of subsidies to defend turf in China

The massive subsidy will benefit both consumers and merchants over the next 12 months, Alibaba’s e-commerce arm Taobao said

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd is offering 50 billion yuan ($7 billion) of subsidies for food deliveries and online retail to boost its instant commerce business in China as competition heats up.

The massive subsidy will benefit both consumers and merchants over the next 12 months, Alibaba’s e-commerce arm Taobao said Wednesday in a statement on its official WeChat account.

China’s e-commerce leader is facing growing challenges from up-and-comers like PDD Holdings Inc. It also is trying to catch up with Meituan in the domestic food delivery market, which is becoming even more cutthroat with JD.com Inc. joining the fray.

But in the wake of DeepSeek’s meteoric rise on the global stage at the beginning of this year, Alibaba’s Chief Executive Officer Eddie Wu has pledged to pivot the company to focus on AI to drive future growth.