Meituan Plan to Expand Its E-Commerce Business

China’s largest food delivery platform is looking to use its mammoth user base to expand into e-commerce and bolster its existing forays as a bike-share leader and travel intermediary. The moves come even as it remains under the vise of Beijing’s regulatory grip and its revenue slows.

While Meituan beat revenue and profit expectations for the fourth quarter of 2021, numbers were down—for the quarter and for the year. Profits took a huge hit, falling from a $737 million gain for all of 2020 to a $3.7 billion loss for 2021. Total revenues were up 56% for the year, but have nevertheless been slowing for 10 months.

Meituan also seems to be going headstrong into its new and existing ventures. Late last year, it announced a change in its entire strategic positioning. It was moving from “Food + Platform” to “Retail + Technology,” it said in a statement. What that largely meant was that it would continue its successful leadership status in food delivery and bike-sharing, but would expand into full-fledged e-commerce.

Meituan is well-positioned for this massive endeavour, even if competition is fierce. It already delivers a range of third-party products from food to retail items and has a growing logistics network. And through its delivery and bike-share services—which are available alongside a number of other services in a single do-it-all app—it is already on more than 100 million phones in China, according to iiMedia Research.

Meituan’s e-commerce push involves expanding the products it offers in its delivery platform but also increasing both third-party vendors and its own products. It is creating multiple spheres within its e-commerce vertical that target different user needs. It has also recently opened an overseas shopping portal for cross-border sales, allowing Chinese consumers to buy products from developed markets like the U.S

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