(Yicai Global) July 2 -- Alibaba Group Holding is blending three of its location-based businesses into a life services division that will be headed by Yu Yongfu, the chairman of its digital mapper Autonavi, the Economic Observer reported today, citing the chief executive officer of the Chinese e-commerce giant.

Autonavi, online travel agency Fliggy and the Local Life Service Company will become one, said Daniel Zhang, who is also chairman of the board. The CEOs of all three units, namely Liu Zhenfei, Zhuang Zhuoran and Li Yonghe respectively, will report to Yu.

Yu, the former chairman of mobile internet firm UCWeb, became the president of Alibaba’s UC Mobile business in 2014 when Alibaba acquired Guangzhou-based UCWeb, best known for its popular UC Browser. He then became chairman and CEO of the newly-established Alibaba Digital Media and Entertainment Group in October 2016 before taking the reins at Autonavi.

Alibaba’s Local Life Service was formed in 2018 through the integration of food delivery platform Ele.me, bought for USD9.5 billion that year, and local commerce site Koubei, which serves as a guide to a huge range of areas such as food, clothing, housing and entertainment. Li, who has served as the president of Alibaba’s Hyperlocal Retail Business Group, which runs its e-commerce platform Tmall supermarket and the Tmall Business Group, was recently brought in as CEO.

Local Life Service logged a 50 percent jump in revenue in the first quarter from the same period last year to CNY7.25 billion (USD1.11 billion), accounting for 4 percent of Alibaba’s total revenue. Revenue from other businesses, including Tmall, more than doubled to CNY59.6 billion (USD9.2 billion), contributing 32 percent of the company’s total income, up from 22 percent over the same period last year.

Editor: Kim Taylor