February 9, 2023: On Wednesday, ByteDance said that it has been testing a food delivery service in China through its short video app Douyin, potentially pitting itself against significant e-commerce companies like Alibaba and Meituan.

And the firm is now considering extending the service beyond the trial.

Douyin is the Chinese version of TikTok, owned by ByteDance.

A Douyin spokesperson stated that the company has been “testing a component in Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu that allows merchants to promote and sell ‘group-purchasing’ packages to Douyin users in these select cities and have them delivered.”

Restaurant owners often livestream on Douyin to work their businesses. While doing this, they can provide discounts and coupons for their food to users watching the videos. Different users can then purchase that provide and choose a time in two days for the food to arrive.

The model is varieties from Meituan and Alibaba’s Ele. Me, which are actually on-demand food delivery services, such as Uber Eats.

“We would consider expanding the feature to cities in the coming time which depends on the testing results. There is no complete timeline yet,” a Douyin spokesperson stated.

The firm has been testing the feature since December.

Meituan and Ele dominate China’s food delivery industry. Me.

But ByteDance’s tentative steps into the market suggest it wants a slice of the market worth $66.4 billion in 2022, the research firm IMARC Group stated.

ByteDance is decreasing its toes into different areas of online shopping. The previous year, the company launched a fashion website ascalled If Yooou outside China.