Alibaba Group has officially retired its 16-year-old food delivery brand, Ele.me, fully integrating the service into its Taobao e-commerce platform under the new name “Taobao Shangou.” This move is part of a broader strategy to consolidate its core businesses and create a more unified ecosystem to compete more effectively with rivals like Meituan and JD.com in the fast-growing instant-commerce market. The integration aims to strengthen Alibaba's logistics network and leverage the vast user base of Taobao. By folding Ele.me into its main e-commerce operations, along with other services like Fliggy, Alibaba is creating a more centralized force to enhance delivery services, member perks, and overall ecosystem loyalty. In premarket trading on Friday, Alibaba's shares saw a slight increase of 0.99% to $159.00.