Have you noticed? Recently, the online food delivery services have started burning money again.

Alibaba directly invested 50 billion, Meituan followed with 30 billion, and JD.com also did not hold back, throwing in 20 billion. A friend asked me, what is the purpose of burning money like this?

This reminds me of when a leading exchange launched the Alpha feature last year. At that time, a bunch of people questioned: what’s the point of this points system? Looking back now—after getting used to using that platform for your wallet, wanting to switch to another? Difficult.

I myself am a living example. Although I still open the wallet of another exchange for airdrops now, when it comes to high-frequency operations like transferring and receiving new coins, my hand has habitually clicked on that app.

**This is the terrifying aspect of path dependency.**

Recently, when I wrote that article about Ctrip, many people said that they make money by monopolizing the market. But where is the monopoly with Ctrip? It's just that when you want to book a ticket, the first thing that pops into your mind is them. Once a habit is formed, the cost of switching becomes absurdly high.

So you see, after the leading exchange Alpha went live, another one immediately got anxious and quickly put together a BST to compete. This wallet war is likely to last a long time—until one side captures 80% of the market share, it may not settle down.

To be honest, the other exchange hasn't really come up with anything impressive lately. Their own chain... can they take it seriously? Stop just following behind others all the time.

The essence of the money-burning battle has never been about burning money itself, but about seizing the user's "first reaction." Whoever wins this wins the market.