China’s Internet Giants Post Steady 2025 Performance, Driven by AI and Instant Retail

Instant retail became a fiercely competitive sector. JD.com launched its food delivery service in February 2025, gaining over 240 million user orders within a year and capturing more than 15% of the market share. Xu Ran, CEO of JD.com, noted that instant retail is an important strategic direction for the company. 

Alibaba restructured its instant retail business, renaming “Ele.me” to “Taobao Flash Purchase” to integrate more closely with Taobao APP, with its instant retail revenue surging 56% in the fourth quarter. Meituan maintained over 60% of the GTV market share by increasing subsidies and innovating service models.

Li Mingtao, Chief Expert on E-commerce at the China International E-commerce Center, said fierce competition brought more choices for consumers and merchants, but continuous “money-burning” distorted the market price system. According to the State Administration for Market Regulation, regulatory authorities have conducted on-site investigations on relevant food delivery platforms, prompting enterprises to advocate anti-involution and tighten subsidies.

AI has become a key driver of performance growth. Tencent’s core businesses benefited substantially from AI, with value-added services, marketing services and fintech revenue growing 14%, 17% and 8% year-on-year respectively in the fourth quarter. Wu Yongming, CEO of Alibaba Group, stated that AI-related product revenue of Alibaba Cloud has maintained triple-digit growth for 10 consecutive quarters. 

Baidu’s AI business revenue reached 40 billion yuan in 2025, entering a commercial realization period, while Meituan invested 26 billion yuan in R&D, a 23% year-on-year increase, to promote AI innovation in scenarios such as unmanned delivery.