AutoNavi Taps AI, 3D Street View in Escalating Battle for Local Services Market
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AutoNavi, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s mapping unit, is stepping up its efforts in the booming local services market, unveiling a suite of new tools including a high-resolution 3D street view function to help users explore venues virtually before visiting in person.
On Wednesday, the company introduced a major upgrade to its Street Sweeping List, a venue discovery feature launched in September 2025 that ranks local restaurants and shops. The revamp includes real-time recommendation lists, social features that display friends’ activity, and immersive previews of business locations.
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- AutoNavi, Alibaba's mapping unit, launched advanced features including a 3D street view and upgraded venue discovery tools, aiming to rival Meituan in local services.
- The Street Sweeping List attracted 660 million users in 100 days, with over 70 million daily active users and 46 million added monthly users, totaling 996 million.
- Over 860,000 new merchants joined, order volume surged 330%, and revenue rose over 270%; AutoNavi pledges rankings remain non-monetized and authentic.
- Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
- Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.'s mapping unit, AutoNavi, is expanding into the local services market, competing with Meituan. AutoNavi has introduced new tools like 3D street view and upgraded its "Street Sweeping List," which ranks local businesses. The app, integrated with Alibaba's Qwen large language model, uses AI for recommendations. AutoNavi plans to invest heavily in its technology, offering it free to small businesses.
- AutoNavi
- AutoNavi, as Alibaba's mapping unit, is expanding into local services. It launched a 3D street view and upgraded its "Street Sweeping List" feature to offer real-time recommendations and social elements. AutoNavi aims to become a comprehensive consumer services platform, challenging Meituan by leveraging AI, mapping data, and its large user base for food, travel, and entertainment.
- Meituan
- Meituan is identified as the dominant player in China's local services market. AutoNavi, Alibaba's mapping unit, is directly challenging Meituan in the in-store services space. Meituan plans to invest at least 3 billion yuan over five years to enhance its local information infrastructure, utilizing its own large language model to improve accuracy.
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