Alibaba Group vs Meituan

Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment Names Alibaba Group an Official Technology and Cloud Partner of the Brooklyn Nets

Alibaba Group has been named an official technology and cloud partner of the Brooklyn Nets by Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment, announced September 28, 2026.

Huawei and Alibaba AI Chip Launches Boost Xi Ahead of US Visit

Ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping's first US state visit in over a decade, Chinese tech giants have accelerated AI chip and model launches, signaling resilience against US export controls. Huawei advanced its Ascent 960DT chip release by three quarters to Q1 2027, while Alibaba unveiled the Zhenwu V900 chip, claiming triple the performance of its predecessor, available in early 2027. DeepSeek reportedly assembled the largest known cluster of Huawei chips. These moves aim to demonstrate that US restrictions can slow but not halt China's AI progress. However, analysts note US models remain ahead, and China still depends on US advanced chips. Export controls were not on the summit agenda, as both sides focus on other issues.

• Xi Jinping's US state visit is his first in 11 years.
• Huawei advanced its Ascent 960DT AI chip release to Q1 2027, three quarters ahead of schedule.
• Alibaba unveiled the Zhenwu V900 AI chip, tripling predecessor performance, on sale in early 2027.

Alibaba Launches Qwen Intelligence for Agentic Smartphones

Alibaba has unveiled Qwen Intelligence, a new platform designed to power agentic AI on smartphones. The platform enables device manufacturers to develop intelligent assistants capable of planning and executing complex tasks across multiple apps. HONOR is the first partner to integrate Qwen Intelligence, with the HONOR Magic9 Series and the upcoming HONOR Robot Phone among the first devices to feature it. The platform includes three pre-configured agents: Mobile Planner, Mobile-Use, and Mobile Creative. It is built on three layers: optimized Qwen models, a modular platform for deployment and tool control, and a device-cloud architecture. Alibaba plans to add personalized memory, multimodal interactions, and specialized agents from partners. The company has also developed four benchmarks, including MobilePA-Bench with over 1,000 tasks, to evaluate mobile agent performance. HONOR and Alibaba report up to 91.8% task precision and orchestration of over 100 steps, with first devices launching end of September.

• Alibaba launched Qwen Intelligence, a platform for agentic AI on smartphones.
• HONOR is the first partner, integrating Qwen Intelligence into the Magic9 Series and Robot Phone.
• The platform includes three agents: Mobile Planner, Mobile-Use, and Mobile Creative.

ByteDance Raises Local Services Fees, Pressuring Meituan Margins

ByteDance has implemented two pricing moves in four weeks that reshape China's in-store services market. In July 2026, its standalone group-buying app Dou Sheng Sheng raised commission rates by 2-5 percentage points over Douyin's main app, and Douyin ended strong promotional referrals to the standalone product. On August 10, Doubao, ByteDance's AI assistant, began charging an all-in fee of about 12% for hotel bookings (11.4% software service fee and 0.6% payment processing), exceeding Douyin's public 8% hotel rate. Meituan reported Q2 2026 revenue of Rmb 104.6bn, up 14.4%, with core local commerce operating margin of 7.9%, but in-store margin reached roughly 30%, above Nomura's 25% forecast. Meituan expects margin to decline in Q3 due to increased investment, indicating competitive normalization.

• ByteDance raised commission rates on Dou Sheng Sheng by 2-5 percentage points above Douyin's main app in July 2026.
• Doubao began charging an all-in fee of about 12% for hotel bookings on August 10, 2026, with 11.4% software service fee and 0.6% payment processing.
• Meituan reported Q2 2026 revenue of Rmb 104.6bn, up 14.4% year-over-year.