Alibaba mapping logs record for daily users on first day of China holiday

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HONG KONG (Reuters) -Alibaba’s mapping app Amap recorded more than 360 million daily active users on the first day of China’s eight-day National Day holiday on Wednesday, setting an all-time high for the platform, the company said in a statement.

Alibaba and rival Meituan have been locked in a bitter battle for market share, with Amap moving away from its traditional focus on navigation and encroaching on Meituan’s local-lifestyle territory by launching its own ranking of restaurants, hotels and tourist destinations. 

In Thursday trade in Hong Kong, index heavyweight Alibaba jumped 4% after JPMorgan raised the tech giant’s target share price to HK$240 ($30.85) from a previous HK$165.

Coinciding with the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival, the National Day holiday this year has been extended from one week to eight days, fuelling a surge in travel. The holiday period, which ends this year on October 8, is traditionally one of the busiest in China.

In September, Amap announced a new function known as “Street Stars,” which uses artificial intelligence algorithms to rank destinations for its daily active users.

The app was offering users 1 billion yuan ($140.43 million) in subsidies for coupons for ride-hailing or in-store services as part of the new service’s launch.

Chinese consumers have long relied on apps such as Meituan’s Dazhong Dianping to research restaurant recommendations, make bookings and more.

China’s national railway recorded 23.13 million trips on the first day of the National Day holiday, up nearly 8% from a year earlier and setting a single-day record, state media CCTV reported.

($1 = 7.7800 Hong Kong dollars)

(Reporting by Anne Marie Roantree; Editing by Kate Mayberry)