Meituan, Alibaba shares jump as Beijing vows to end price wars
China’s market regulator holds seminar on curbing cut-throat competition, which dampens the drive to grow consumption
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[HONG KONG] The shares of China’s food-delivery companies surged on Wednesday (Mar 25), as the authorities stepped up efforts to end the intense competition in the sector, which has driven down profits.
Meituan’s shares surged 14 per cent in Hong Kong, marking its best day since October 2024. Its rivals Alibaba Group and JD.com climbed 4.6 per cent and 4.9 per cent, respectively.
The shares of the companies rallied after China’s market regulator State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) held a seminar on curbing unfair competition.
SAMR’s website also reposted an opinion piece from the state-backed newspaper Economic Daily, which called for an end to price wars in the industry.
The entire food-delivery sector has fallen into a “vicious cycle” of losing money just to gain attention – a trend which ultimately weighs on the broader recovery of consumption, the opinion piece argued.
It added that the price wars run directly counter to the central government’s efforts to boost consumption.
Steven Leung, executive director at UOB Kay Hian in Hong Kong, said that the tone of regulators in curbing the intense competition was likely to keep getting “stronger and stronger, until the market finally gets the full message”.
Chinese technology giants have been mired in a fierce battle to win customers in the food-ordering sector, after JD.com said in 2025 that it would enter the industry to wrest market share from Alibaba and Meituan.
The three companies have since unveiled subsidies for customers, designed to attract traffic to their apps.
In February, Meituan announced its biggest annual loss since 2021 because of the competition.
The company announces its 2025 earnings on Thursday. Based on Bloomberg consensus estimates, it made a net loss of 24.1 billion yuan (S$4.5 billion) for the year. BLOOMBERG
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