Under the major trend of interconnection among giants, another pair of former "rivals" chose to shake hands and make peace.

Recently, many users have found that by searching for Meituan within Alipay, they can directly use Meituan power banks and Meituan food ordering via mini-programs. The recent usage frequency of these two major services on Alipay, has already reached 3 million and 4 million user-times respectively.

Looking back three years ago, Meituan had sparked heated online discussion due to "abandoning" Alipay, even drawing accusations of suspected "choose one of two" monopolistic practices.

But now, with changing circumstances and shifts in power, the former rivals have still chosen to shake hands and make peace, much like Palmerston's famous quote: "There are no eternal friends, nor eternal enemies, only eternal interests."

Why connecting to Alipay is a must

From the launch of two Meituan mini-programs within the Alipay ecosystem, it appears Meituan is trying to clear obstacles in terms of usage cost for its own products. Whether it's Meituan power bank or Meituan food ordering, both essentially focus on a single use case: customers acquiring services by scanning QR codes with Alipay in offline stores.

For a long time, Meituan-related products were highly dependent on the WeChat ecosystem. Both food ordering and power bank services could operate smoothly within the WeChat ecosystem, offering a very seamless user experience from scanning to payment.

In offline scenarios like restaurants and shopping centers, Meituan can provide basic services such as ordering food and checking out to consumers. However, in terms of tool access, Meituan needs to reduce user friction. Although the Meituan APP also has a large user base, there is still a gap compared to WeChat and Alipay, which are considered kings in terms of installation volume.

Enabling users to enjoy products and services provided by Meituan through Alipay has become a necessary endeavor.

Meituan's move also has competitive considerations. Taking shared power bank products as an example, besides Meituan Power Bank, there are well-known brands in the industry such as Monster, Xiaodian, and Jiedian. All these products, without exception, have integrated Alipay for usage and payment channels. Moreover, in many offline scenarios, they directly compete with Meituan Power Bank in the same space.

In a highly commoditized product market, missing a payment channel and access point could ultimately influence consumer choice.

After integrating with Alipay, the growth of Meituan Power Bank is also evident. In comparison with Monster, Xiaodian, and Jiedian, Meituan Power Bank's recent user usage is second only to Monster Charge's 5 million+ user-times.

And for Alipay, Meituan's business integration is also great news. After all, for a long time, Meituan's products did not support Alipay payments. Now, with its presence as a mini-program, Alipay will have the opportunity to directly tap into Meituan's hundreds of billions of yuan in annual transaction volume.

According to actual tests by Spiral Lab, Alipay payment is currently supported in independent apps like Meituan and Meituan Waimai. However, since the entry point is still in a collapsed state, its priority is lower than Meituan Pay and WeChat Pay.

Twelve Years of Grievances and Enmity

The long-standing grievances and enmity between Meituan and Alibaba can be traced back to the 'Hundred Group Buy War' era, and many of their disagreements and conflicts have centered on payment channel issues.

In 2011, Meituan founder Wang Xing proactively approached Alibaba, hoping to gain its support. After negotiations between both parties, Meituan secured a USD 50 million investment from Alibaba, on the condition of surrendering 12% equity and priority financing rights.

This funding and Alibaba's support successfully helped Meituan win the 'Hundred Group Buy War.' For the next three years, the two companies enjoyed a brief honeymoon period.

By 2014, WeChat Pay 'attacked Pearl Harbor' with its Spring Festival red envelopes, making Alibaba and Alipay feel unprecedented competitive pressure. Subsequently, they launched encirclement and interception campaigns against WeChat Pay in multiple battlefields, and the O2O market, where Meituan operates, was naturally no exception.

But surprisingly, Meituan founder Wang Xing rejected Alibaba's request to make Alipay Meituan's sole payment channel, citing that WeChat offered lower payment fees.

However, looking at subsequent developments, what Wang Xing valued was not just WeChat Pay's low fees, but also other support policies provided by Tencent. After all, in the later 'New Meituan-Dianping' merger, the major shareholder Alibaba did not approve, while Tencent actively promoted the merger of Meituan and Dianping.

In 2016, Alibaba divested its shares from Meituan and subsequently acquired Ele.me. Later, it heavily supported products like Koubei, Fliggy, and Taopiaopiao, not only parting ways with Meituan but also becoming direct competitors.

In 2020, Meituan canceled Alipay payments, bringing the conflict between the two companies into the open. Wang Xing stated on Fanfou: Why doesn't Taobao support WeChat Pay yet? WeChat Pay has more active users than Alipay, and its transaction fees are also lower than Alipay's.

It's worth noting that in the eyes of Meituan founder Wang Xing, the product Alipay itself holds other special meanings. This is because on the eve of Alibaba's IPO, Jack Ma spun off Alipay without the approval of Alibaba's board of directors.

In a later interview, Wang Xing stated that Jack Ma's actions regarding Alipay caused lasting damage to the global reputation of Chinese business leaders. He even directly pointed out "Jack Ma has an integrity issue."

Looking back at the many confrontations between Meituan and Alibaba, one might have once thought their conflicts were irreconcilable. However, seeing them re-embrace each other now, one truly can't help but marvel at the saying 'only eternal interests'.