ByteDance and Alibaba have not yet reached a consensus on the terms or price of an offer by the former to buy Alibaba’s food delivery service Ele.me according to financial media outlet Caijing. However, Alibaba yet again denied it was in negotiations with ByteDance to sell Ele.me. Bytedance, operator of TikTok and its domestic sibling Douyin, was reported by Caijing to have bid $7 billion, which is $500 million to $1 billion less than expected by Alibaba. A further disagreement between the duo is reported to be Alibaba’s intention to transfer over the entire Ele.me team, while ByteDance only wanted to keep its delivery couriers. Alibaba took full control of Ele.me in 2018 at a valuation of $9.5 billion, as it took steps into the local services industry to compete with Meituan. The business has yet to enter a clear cycle of profitability. As Douyin relies on third-party platforms including SF Express, JD’s Dada, and Ele.me to fulfill its delivery demands, building its own team of riders is crucial for ByteDance in doubling down on its local service ambitions. [Caijing, in Chinese]
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