Tencent, Alibaba now dominate online food delivery space in China

Baidu's exit from food delivery implies that it's tired of being caught between larger rivals

Last month, Baidu sold its O2O food delivery service, Baidu Waimai, to Ele.me. This means that now, the Alibaba-backed Ele.me and Tencent-backed Meituan dominate the space.

This deal speaks volumes about the state of Chinese internet in 2017. Here are the three big trends:

Convergence is continuing

China’s internet giants- Alibaba, Tencent, and Baidu- are continuing to move into each others’ spaces. This is a big change from a few years ago when Tencent mostly stayed in gaming and messaging, Alibaba in e-commerce, and Baidu in search. 

As Alibaba and Tencent now dwarf Baidu in market cap, the latter’s exit