(Yicai Global) May 17 -- Alibaba Group Holding has officially entered the restaurant and lifestyle sector with the launch of a new app called Chihuobiji, meaning ‘the notes of a gourmet,’ putting the Chinese e-commerce titan in direct competition with life services giant Meituan, operator of the country’s version of ‘Yelp,’ tech media 36Kr reported today.

Chihuobiji, which is already available for downloading on Apple’s App Store and other platforms, lets restaurant-goers share their experiences using short videos, photos and text. There is also a ‘to-do’ function, where users can list the eateries they want to try out and instantly upload content as soon as they get there.

The new app is pitting itself against Dazhong Dianping, run by Beijing-based Meituan, which is currently the most popular restaurant review site in China and Xiaohongshu, meaning Little Red Book, the favorite lifestyle sharing platform on the Chinese version of the App Store.

Chihuobiji has also set up a short video account to recruit content creators from external platforms such as Bilibili and Bytedance’s TikTok, to ensure a better quality of clips and attract more online traffic, the report said.

Chihuobiji aims to be a key link between merchants, consumers and key opinion leaders, it added. It also contains direct links to other Alibaba-backed food-related apps, such as meal delivery platform Ele.me and e-commerce site Taobao to achieve a closed marketing cycle.

Editor: Kim Taylor