Booming O2O

The value of O2O transactions in China jumped 72 percent last year to $146 billion, according to Chinese research firm Analysys.

According to a June report by Chinese research firm iiMedia Research, Ele.me and Baidu Waimai, which Ele.me acquired a year ago, held a combined 55 percent of China's food delivery market in the first quarter compared with Meituan's 41 percent.

China's biggest ride-hailing firm Didi Chuxing also entered the fray in April launching its own food delivery service.

Meituan Dianping is expected to raise more than $4 billion when it floats in Hong Kong in the coming months. Last year the company was valued at $30 billion in a fundraising round.

In April, Alibaba bought the shares it did not already own in Ele.me in an all-cash deal that valued the startup at $9.5 billion. The e-commerce giant and its financial affiliate Ant Financial Services Group previously owned a 43 stake in the business, whose name roughly translates to “Hungry?".

Koubei, founded in 2015 as a 50-50 joint venture of Alibaba and Ant Financial, had a valuation of $8 billion at the end of 2017, according to a list of unicorns published by a unit under China's Ministry of Science & Technology in March. Silver Lake, CDH Investments, Yunfeng Capital and Primavera Capital joined as investors in a January 2017 funding round.

Ant Financial declined to comment.

There are no publicly available numbers for Hema, which was founded two years ago as part of Alibaba's retail push and now operates more than 60 supermarkets in 13 cities in China, according to its website.