The Impulso Podcast E128: Behind $0 Bubble tea in china: China's quick commerce war explained
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Jul 29, 2025 China's quick commerce war is heating up, with over 120 million daily orders and staggering subsidies surpassing RMB20 billion. Hosts dive into how JD.com sparked this fierce competition with zero-commission food delivery. A whimsical tale emerges of someone ordering 2,200 free bubble teas, causing chaos at a shop. The discussion also tackles whether these unsustainable demand levels can hold up. Meituan's CEO calls the subsidy battle pointless, while regulators cautiously address the chaos, hinting at potential limits to this retail frenzy.
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2,200 Cups For Almost Nothing
- Someone ordered 2,200 cups of bubble tea and paid almost nothing during the voucher blitz.
- The hosts used this to illustrate how extreme voucher stacking and subsidies have become in China.
JD's PR-Driven Attack
- JD entered food delivery aggressively in February and used PR gestures like the founder delivering food himself.
- That move was aimed at signalling virtue and attacking incumbents, not necessarily long-term economics.
Taobao Becomes Alibaba's Quick Commerce Hub
- Alibaba consolidated quick commerce into Taobao's main app to leverage nearly 400 million daily users.
- This top-down move shows Alibaba defending core e-commerce by funneling instant retail into its largest product.