Alibaba is introducing an update to its navigation service Amap that ditches traditional maps. And through a new feature called “Street Stars,” Alibaba is enabling A.I. ranking of local businesses — restaurants, hotels, tourist spots — based not just on reviews but on actual user behaviour. That transition is a move for Alibaba to elevate Amap beyond just a navigation tool.
It wants the service to become a lifestyle and local service platform that is powered by AI. The feature works in more than 300 cities and includes roughly 1.6 million local listings. Alibaba says it’s all part of a plan to compete with services like Meituan’s Dianping.
Alibaba Leverages AI to Understand What Users Really Want
Alibaba’s system uses data such as search history, frequent visits and the number of times customers return to inform rankings. This is in contrast with review-based platforms in which users rank businesses based on written feedback or likes. The businesses where people actually leave their homes and go to are rated higher. Not just the ones that have high rankings. Alibaba refers to this strategy as being more organic and of use to people discovering services in their cities. It’s a step toward A.I. that is based on what people do, not just what they say.
Alibaba Incentivises Local Commerce via AI Enhancements
To encourage use of “Street Stars” and spur local businesses to profit, Alibaba is spending about 1 billion yuan (a little more than US$140 million) on subsidies. These will come in the form of ride-hailing, in-store services, dining, and other offline consumption offers. Alibaba hopes this support will lure traffic to the stores, restaurants and attractions listed in “Street Stars.” Simultaneously, this giveaway strategy puts Alibaba in a position to integrate more deeply into local commerce, this time using AI to direct people to specific locations.
Alibaba Scales Fast: Reach and Competition
Amap already counts 170 million daily active users, so Alibaba’s move is a significant one. Immediately, the new “Street Stars” feature covers over 1.6 million business listings and 300 cities. This is a direct competitor to Meituan’s Dianping in the local-service rankings and lifestyle sector.
Using AI, Alibaba hopes to gain an edge through improved discovery, more timely recommendations, and stronger network effects. Regulators are also watching closely. Aggressive subsidies and pricing wars are a worry in China’s instant retail and local services spaces.
Bottom Line
The rating feature in Amap offers a glimpse of how Alibaba is deploying AI as a tool that alters the way we go about our daily lives. By concentrating on what users actually do — return visits; clicking, navigating — instead of what they say, Alibaba is coming up with a more intuitive way for users to discover things. The “Street Stars” model, using big data and subsidies, brings an opportunity for local merchants and users to get more practical local recommendations.
Competition between the companies is heating up, and Alibaba’s ability to make “Street Stars” popular and reliable may hinge on how well it can strike a balance among fairness, transparency and utility. For city folk, that could mean vastly smarter — not just more convenient — place-finding tools from AI coming soon.
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