(Updates throughout with details on net and operating profit)
By Casey Hall
SHANGHAI, May 25 (Reuters) - Chinese food delivery giant Meituan on Thursday reported a return to net profit in the first quarter on forecast-beating revenue as it fended off competition from rivals such as Alibaba-backed Ele.me and ByteDance unit Douyin.
Meituan, whose app provides services including bike-sharing, ticket-booking and maps, made net profit of 3.36 billion yuan ($486 million) versus a loss of 5.7 billion yuan a year earlier.
Revenue jumped 26.7% to 58.62 billion yuan, up from 46.27 billion a year earlier, it said. The result compared with the 56.48 billion yuan average of 14 analyst estimates compiled by Refinitiv.
On Monday, Meituan expanded to Hong Kong with new food delivery business KeeTa. It initially launched in Mong Kok and Tai Kok Tsui, but said it expects the service to be available across Hong Kong by year-end.
The business, which marks Meituan's first foray outside of mainland China, could be a stepping stone to further international expansion, CEO Wang Xing said in a call with analysts in March.
The expansion comes as Meituan faces competition from long-time competitor Ele.me, as well as ByteDance, the owner of TikTok and Chinese sister platform Douyin, which branched out into food delivery in February.
Meituan remains China's biggest delivery platform, with a 69% share of the 1 trillion yuan market, data from researcher ChinaIRN showed.
Revenue from core local commerce, which includes food delivery and non-food delivery service Meituan Instashopping, rose 25.5% to 42.9 billion yuan in the January to March quarter.
Operating profit for the segment jumped 100.7% on a year-over-year basis to 9.4 billion yuan.
($1 = 6.9121 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Casey Hall; Editing by Christopher Cushing, Jan Harvey and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
((Casey.Hall@thomsonreuters.com;))
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