Baidu’s food delivery subsidiary, Baidu Waimai, and Baidu’s fully owned group-buying company, Nuomi, denied the rumors of a merger with Meituan Dianping, the “Chinese Groupon”, Tencent Tech reported.
According to Tencent Tech, a source close to the matter said Baidu Waimai had made contact with Meituan Dianping on the merger, but they currently could not agree on issues including the price and stock rights.
Both Baidu Waimai and Nuomi have already denied a similar rumor in August that they would sell themselves to Meituan Dianping.
Baidu Waimai made an announcement in August to clarify rumors and prove that Baidu Waimai was in good financial condition. Baidu’s Q2 results indicated that the gross merchandise volume of its e-commerce businesses, including Nuomi, Baidu Waimai and Baidu Wallet, reached RMB 18 billion (USD 2.7 billion), a 166% YoY increase.
In the Baidu World Conference 2016 last week, the general manager of Nuomi, Zeng Liang, emphasized the importance of Nuomi in Baidu’s online-to-offline (O2O) ecosystem. Baidu’s mobile search application recommends merchants and services to users, Baidu’s mapping service application helps the merchants locate their customers, and finally Nuomi completes the transaction.
Zeng said that the O2O market in China was in a sustainable and fast growth and that Nuomi would continue working in artificial intelligence (AI) and big data.
(Top photo from Capitalnewsdesk.com)
