As of Friday, Ele.me, Alibaba’s food delivery unit with three million registered delivery riders, provided service for 2,000 Starbucks stores in 30 Chinese cities. In addition, Starbucks and Alibaba launched the first “virtual” Starbucks store in China on Friday, utilizing Starbucks’ app and various Alibaba’s mobile apps, including Taobao and Alipay. Spenders can get stars in the Starbucks Rewards program, and the service reaches approximately 670 million Starbucks and Alibaba mobile active users. Starbucks says it putting its China delivery experience to work elsewhere. The China moves make sense, but there is also a lot lurking on the horizon that may be beyond Starbucks’ control.

Source: Forbes December 15, 2018 08:41 UTC