Alibaba's map app drives 60% more orders for Shanghai noodle shop: Here's why

A small beef noodle shop in Shanghai's Changning district has seen orders climb 50 to 60% above normal in recent months. Owner Zhang Xuan credits a single factor: his restaurant's placement as the fourth-best eatery in the district on Alibaba's Amap mapping app.

The programme responsible for such rapid popularity gains is known as Street Stars. It relies on the use of artificial intelligence to rate locations according to footfall, mobility trends, and verified customer reviews. 

This feature is prominently displayed on the homepage of Amap and has grown to include "local favourites" listings for 269 cities in China.

Merchants who appeared in the list in 2025 enjoyed year-on-year increases of their orders by 424%, while merchants from "top picks" experienced a 159% boost.

Bai Wenxi, chief economist at China Enterprise Capital Union, said Amap has managed to build consumer confidence around actual offline visits by drawing on navigation and repeat-visit data.

The sales growth among small merchants, he added, signals that the underlying business model is working as intended.

One year after Street Stars launched, Amap is rolling out a broader technical upgrade centred on Flying Street View 2.0.

The platform is based on ABot-Earth 0.7, the company's description of which states that it represents the first native 3D urban world model of its kind. The platform allows people to preview destinations in interactive 3D, from the seating arrangement in the theatre to the interior of a shopping mall, before even entering it.

According to Amap CEO Guo Ning, the upgrade was made within the framework of a greater perspective that Amap holds about its function, distinguishing it from other apps developed solely for language processing. This implies that Amap sees itself not as a navigation tool, but rather as an entrance into physical spaces through digital means.

Meituan has dominated the local services market for years.