Chinese food delivery giant Meituan beats quarterly revenue estimates

CHINA’S largest food delivery firm Meituan posted a bigger-than-expected 22.4 per cent rise in third-quarter revenue on Friday (Nov 29), defying sluggish Chinese consumption.

Meituan, which has an app that provides services as varied as bike-sharing, ticket-booking and maps, reported revenue in the three months to Sep 30 at 93.6 billion yuan (S$17.3 billion), up from 76.5 billion yuan in the same period a year earlier.

Its net profit for the quarter hit 12.86 billion yuan, increasing from a profit of 3.59 billion yuan a year earlier.

Penny-pinching Chinese consumers have led to low-cost and discounted products becoming the focus for shoppers and platforms alike, benefitting Meituan, which delivers the goods for a small fee.

Meituan’s revenue from core local commerce, which includes food delivery and non-food delivery service Meituan Instashopping, rose 20.2 per cent to 69.37 billion yuan.

Sales from new initiatives grew 28.9 per cent to 24.2 billion yuan.

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Last year, Meituan announced it was buying Light Year, an artificial intelligence (AI) startup established by Meituan co-founder Wang Huiwen, for US$281 million as major tech firms in China increase their bets on AI.

Meituan is China’s biggest delivery platform, with a 69 per cent share of the one trillion yuan market, according to data from researcher ChinaIRN. REUTERS