Meituan | Wang Xing: Firmly Oppose Internal Competition; Cost per Order in Food Delivery Likely to Improve with Losses

In response to recent price wars in the food delivery industry and regulatory investigations, Meituan (03690) CEO Wang Xing stated at the earnings conference that regulatory authorities aim to foster a healthy and orderly market. He noted that subsidy-driven or price-driven competition in the food delivery sector is a typical form of irrational competition, “We firmly oppose internal competition and will actively cooperate with regulatory investigations.”

Wang Xing emphasized that Meituan is reallocating resources from low-value, low-margin orders to defend market share and promote high-quality growth. “Regardless of how the market environment evolves, our food delivery strategy remains clear and consistent, and we expect to see a more meaningful quarter-over-quarter improvement in per-order losses in the first quarter compared to Q4 of last year.”

Not rushing to become a token factory

Regarding how Meituan plans to respond to the potential “super entrance” shift brought by artificial intelligence (AI), Wang Xing pointed out that while AI will fundamentally change everything, the only meaningful strategy in this AI revolution is proactive engagement rather than mere defense. However, this does not mean the company is rushing to become one of the “token factories” — not at all.

He believes that general AI cannot reliably manage real-world physical service experiences. Without deep involvement in fulfillment service management, AI is just a smart chatbot. Currently, Meituan has launched its embedded AI assistant “Xiao Guan” to all users and is committed to developing it into a user-centric native service AI agent.

Enhancing instant retail supply chain capabilities with Dingdong’s mainland business

During the conference call, Wang Xing confirmed that Meituan plans to acquire Dingdong’s mainland operations for $717 million (approximately HKD 5.593 billion). This move not only demonstrates confidence in China’s retail business but will also significantly strengthen Meituan’s supply chain capabilities in the instant retail sector and greatly improve coverage and service quality in East China.

In overseas markets, Keeta’s globalization is accelerating. Wang Xing noted that Keeta achieved its first profitable month in Hong Kong last October, taking 29 months to reach profitability. He expects Saudi Arabia to be a very favorable market for delivery operations to turn profitable, and Keeta is likely to achieve profitability in Saudi much faster than in Hong Kong, definitely before the end of this year.