In 2023, the competition among Internet platforms became increasingly fierce, and all major platforms were actively seeking innovation and breakthrough. In this smoke-filled Internet environment, the competition in local life is particularly noticeable.
From Meituan and Ali, to Tik Tok and Aauto Quicker, to Xiaohongshu and video number, they have entered the local life field one after another as an important strategic direction.It has gradually become the new normal of the development of the Internet industry to provide local life services that meet the personalized needs of users through various means such as price wars, service upgrades and technological innovation.
In such a year full of opportunities and challenges, the local life platform is facing unprecedented competitive pressure. With the coming of the new year, this comprehensive and fierce competition will also enter a new stage.
Local life platform melee 2023
Looking back on the local life platform in 2023, this year is undoubtedly full of high-speed development.
From the perspective of layout, all major platforms have tried their best, for fear that competitors will seize the initiative if they are not careful.
Especially, Meituan, which has been the industry leader for a long time, has become the target of siege by many platforms, and its anxiety has become more and more obvious. In order to alleviate this anxiety, the US Mission had to carry out in-depth layout frequently.
No, a few days ago, Meituan revised the short video channel again, adding local channels in addition to the original attention and recommendation interface.
At present, this new channel has been popularized and applied nationwide, and most of the jump links in the interface point to the core catering businesses of Meituan. For businesses such as comprehensive, wine travel and beauty, Meituan has not yet opened a link with the short video function.
To put it simply, Meituan closely combines short video content with local life business, hoping to enhance user experience and increase user participation and stickiness in this way.
Combined with the layout of live broadcast and short video in the first-class traffic portal this year, short video and live broadcast are obviously the core layout of the local life of the US Mission in 2023.
Having said that, let’s turn our attention to its biggest competitor, Tik Tok. Recently, Tik Tok continues to explore stores and group purchases as an important way for local life merchants to gain increment on its platform.
In the aspect of talent shop exploration, Tik Tok Life Service launched the "Good Life Discovery Plan", and invested 500 million yuan to help businesses find high-quality talent, so as to further explore the field of shop exploration.
In terms of low-priced group buying, Tik Tok Group Buying Channel has been adjusted for a new round, adding three modules: special group buying, hot list and free trial, which further strengthens consumers’ awareness of low prices and special offers.
Source: Tik Tok App screenshot
In 2023, the layout of Tik Tok and Meituan shows an obvious trend. Both sides are trying to break into each other’s hinterland, trying to expand their respective market share and attract more local life users and businesses.This kind of competition may bring more benefits and benefits to consumers; At the same time, it is also a good opportunity for merchants to show their products and services.
Meituan expanded its business scope by attacking Tik Tok, while Tik Tok explored the advantages of Meituan to find new growth points. In order to seize the market share, both sides sacrificed their own killers.
Where is the key to competition?
Besides Meituan and Tik Tok, platforms such as Ali, Aauto Quicker, Little Red Book and Video Number are also deepening their layout and development in the local life field.
Let’s take a look at the old rival of Meituan, Ali.
This year, Ali’s big move in the field of local life is to merge Gao De and Word of Mouth, which undoubtedly injected new vitality into Ali’s layout in the field of local life. At the same time, the increase in the order volume brought by the high-tech aggregation platform has also enabled the active users of Ali’s local life sector to continue to grow, setting a record high.
According to the financial report of the second quarter of fiscal year 2024, the revenue of Ali Local Life Group increased by 16% year-on-year to 15.564 billion yuan, which was mainly driven by the hungry and the strong growth of Gaode business. The order increased by nearly 20% year-on-year, and the adjusted EBITA was a loss of 2.564 billion yuan, which was an improvement compared with the loss of 3.328 billion yuan in the same period of 2022.
Source: screenshot of Alibaba’s second quarter financial report for fiscal year 2024
From this point of view, Ali has made great progress and development in the local life field with the effective growth of Gao De and Hungry.
As for platforms such as Aauto Quicker, Little Red Book and Video Number, although they entered the local life field relatively late, they paid top-down attention to this life business.
Aauto Quicker accelerates to fill the shortcomings of home business, and provides faster and more convenient home service through cooperation with merchants; The video number cooperates with local life merchants through short videos and live broadcasts to provide consumers with a more intuitive and vivid shopping experience; Xiaohongshu provides consumers with more diversified local life recommendations and experiences by sharing community attributes.
In terms of action, this year, Aauto Quicker has adopted a market positioning of stimulating consumption at low prices and paying attention to community atmosphere, and organized people to produce store-exploring content through short videos to continuously create a more "grounded" local consumption experience for users.
The video number launched the local life component this year, and used the traffic advantage to open up online and offline channels for businesses.
Xiaohongshu entered the local life track step by step through the internal test group purchase function, and launched the food distribution shop plan and the searchlight plan.
The layout and development of these platforms have more or less promoted the innovation and development of local life services and injected new vitality and opportunities into the entire industry track.
From Meituan and Tik Tok to Ali and Aauto Quicker, and then to Xiaohongshu and video number, the layout of local life has become something that major Internet platforms have to do.
At present, the local life industry is in the initial stage of rapid development, and opportunities and challenges coexist. At this stage, innovation and quality become the key factors of platform competition, and the platform must pay attention to user experience and word-of-mouth construction in order to maintain a leading position in the market.
In other words, in the face of increasingly fierce market competition, only by constantly improving their own strength and actively seizing market share can major local life platforms be in an invincible position.
Local life opens up all-round competition
As we all know, competition is often cruel, because it involves many aspects such as market share, user resources and market influence.
Especially this year, the remarkable trend of the local life platform is to shift from the C-end battlefield to the B-end battlefield. In this process, players from all walks of life have invested resources to grab the market, and the competition for merchants and service providers has intensified.
As expected, Tik Tok has launched four management products, including Tik Tok Laike, Tik Tok Linke, Tik Tok Jixing and Tik Tok Shoppers, in order to improve the business ability and work efficiency of merchants.
Meituan has launched a small program "Meituan Circle Shop Exploration" to match merchants and talents, as well as a new marketing tool for merchants "Shenqiangshou" and an information management tool App "Qingyun Juxin" for merchants’ one-stop performance management capabilities.
Source: Qingyun Juxin Guanwei
Aauto Quicker, whose product technology is more mature, Xiaohongshu, which has a strong grass planting property, and the video number backed by WeChat private domain ecology will all release great potential in the field of local businesses and service providers, and become rivals that cannot be ignored by Meituan and Tik Tok.
Paying attention to the B-side has obviously become an important strategy for the above Internet platforms in the field of local life.
There are two main reasons why they attach so much importance to B-side: First, with the decline of mobile Internet traffic dividends and technology dividends, the growth rate of users is gradually slowing down, and the platform needs to seize every opportunity to obtain increments, and the B-side market is an important way for them to obtain increments; Second, by strengthening cooperation with merchants, we can meet users’ scenarios, multi-industry and diversified needs, and enhance the market competitiveness of the platform, thus maintaining a leading position in the highly competitive market.
However, the transformation is not a simple matter, which not only means that the platform needs to pay attention to consumer demand and cooperation and win-win with merchants at the same time, but also must constantly improve its service level and user experience and actively adapt to market changes.
Only in this way can the local life platform represented by Meituan maintain a leading position in the highly competitive market.
At present, it seems that the local life industry has not yet won this year, and the future direction of competition is still full of variables. But what is certain is that the local life industry will face all-round competition, and new stories will be staged in 2024.
