ByteDance informed CNBC on Wednesday that it has been testing a sort of meals supply service in China by way of its quick video app Douyin, probably pitting itself in opposition to main e-commerce corporations like Alibaba and Meituan.

And the corporate is now contemplating extending the service past the trial.

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Douyin is the Chinese language model of TikTok that are each owned by ByteDance.

A Douyin spokesperson mentioned that the corporate has been “testing a function in Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu that permits retailers to advertise and promote ‘group-buying’ packages to Douyin customers in these choose cities and have them delivered.”

Restaurant homeowners typically livestream on Douyin to market their enterprise. Whereas doing this, they will supply reductions and coupons for his or her meals to customers watching the movies. A number of customers can then buy that supply and select a time inside two days for the meals to reach.

The mannequin may be very totally different from Meituan and Alibaba’s Ele.me that are each on-demand meals supply providers, very similar to Uber Eats.

“We’d think about increasing the function to extra cities sooner or later relying on the testing outcomes. There isn’t a detailed timeline but,” a Douyin spokesperson mentioned.

The corporate has been testing the function since December.

China’s meals supply trade is dominated by Meituan and Ele.me.

However ByteDance’s tentative steps into the market suggests it desires a slice of the market, which was value $66.4 billion in 2022, in accordance with analysis agency IMARC Group.

ByteDance has been dipping its toes into totally different areas of on-line procuring. Final yr, the corporate launched a vogue web site known as If Yooou outdoors of China.