“After Dubai, one more city!” At 11:00 local time on October 28, Meituan’s international food-delivery brand Keeta officially pressed the “open for business” button in Abu Dhabi. With this, the UAE’s two core cities—Dubai and Abu Dhabi—have both been brought into Keeta’s map, and the four GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries—Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, and the UAE—have achieved “continuous city launches.”
Four-month blitz expansion: from Hong Kong to the Middle East, Keeta’s “triple jump”
On May 22, 2023, Keeta under Meituan officially began its overseas journey. Its first stop going abroad was Hong Kong, China, where it adopted a strategy of piloting from Mong Kok and Tai Kok Tsui, and after validating the model it rapidly radiated its service network to the whole of Hong Kong. Since August of this year, Meituan Keeta’s internationalization process has pressed the “fast-forward” button, intensively expanding into three countries within just 40 days—“three countries opened in 40 days”—forming a rapid, thrusting market-entry rhythm.
- 2023.5, Hong Kong, China: market share near 50% in 10 months, forcing the former market leader Foodpanda into a “defensive” position.
- 2024.9, Saudi Arabia: first stop Riyadh; within one year it covered 20+ cities and gradually became the most popular local food-delivery platform.
- 2025.8–9, Qatar & Kuwait: broke into two countries consecutively in under one month.
- 2025.10, the UAE’s two cities: Dubai went online for 30 days, with Abu Dhabi following closely after.
With the “level-up in Hong Kong, deep cultivation in Saudi Arabia, GCC linkage” triple jump, Keeta compressed the domestically honed “everything to your door in 30 minutes” systems engineering into 14 months overseas to complete the journey from 0→1→N.
This series of intensive deployments has made the UAE the fourth strategic foothold for Meituan’s international business in the Middle East Gulf region, preliminarily realizing the “four-country linkage” business-development model proposed by Meituan’s management. Going a step further, Keeta has already set its sights on a broader global market. In May 2025, Meituan signed an investment agreement in Beijing with the Brazilian side, announcing that it would bring Keeta into Brazil in the coming months and invest USD 1 billion over five years to build a nationwide delivery network.
Why Abu Dhabi? The huge potential of the Middle Eastern food-delivery market
The entire Middle East harbors a massive food-delivery market opportunity. Meituan Keeta chose the Middle East as the key battleground for its international strategy because of the region’s enormous market potential and unique locational advantages. The six Gulf countries—Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, and Bahrain—are an important component of the Middle East, with a total population of about 60 million and per-capita GDP exceeding USD 36,000. The food-delivery market in the Middle East is growing rapidly.
According to Statista data, from 2018 to 2023, the year-on-year growth rate of the Middle Eastern food-delivery market basically remained at double-digit levels, and delivery penetration has also increased year by year. What is even more noteworthy is that consumers in the Middle East are characterized by high spending power. Taking Saudi Arabia as an example, delivery penetration rose rapidly from around 10% before the pandemic to 42.9% in 2024, and is expected to increase further in the future. ARPU in Saudi Arabia in 2024 exceeded USD 635, and based on an average order value of USD 16, the annual per-capita ordering frequency is about 40 times.
The UAE market has performed equally well. Dubai, as the most populous city in the UAE and the economic and financial hub of the Middle East, has high delivery penetration, well-developed market infrastructure, and strong user demand for high-quality delivery services; Abu Dhabi, as the capital and cultural center of the UAE, has similar characteristics, with a large metropolitan population base and highly developed digital supporting facilities. Local delivery services are highly prevalent, and users have sustained and strong demand for high-quality, diversified delivery experiences, providing a premium development environment for delivery platforms.
- Deep consumer wallets: per-capita GDP is relatively high, and the average order value for delivery is also high—exceeding USD 10—several times that of mainland China.
- Supply–demand mismatch: smartphone penetration is very high, monthly active delivery users account for more than half of the population, but on the supply side, high-end restaurants still dominate and affordable chains are scarce, leaving a large market opportunity for Keeta.
- Fewer subsidies from other platforms: existing Middle Eastern delivery platforms such as Jahez and Talabat currently only lower the threshold for “free delivery,” but new-user first-order subsidies are far below mainland levels, leaving a “cost-performance” entry point for Keeta.
- Relaxed regulatory policies: in the UAE, foreign capital can wholly own local e-commerce; licenses for riders as “flexible labor” were fully opened up in 2024.
Competitive landscape of Middle Eastern food delivery: from a “three-kingdoms duel” to a “four-kingdoms duel”
In the Middle Eastern delivery market—especially the six Gulf countries on which Meituan Keeta is focusing—a certain competitive pattern has already formed. For example, in the Saudi Arabian market, two major players dominate—the Delivery Hero subsidiary HungerStation and the local platform Jahez. HungerStation and Jahez occupy most of the Saudi delivery market share, and their platforms have already established relatively mature business models and user bases.
Faced with this competitive pattern, Keeta has adopted an active market strategy. When going online in Qatar, it attracted consumers with very large discounts, issuing coupons to new users totaling close to several hundred yuan (CNY; USD equivalent depends on face value). In Dubai, at launch Keeta offered free delivery on all orders, whereas the normal delivery fee is about 3.9 dirhams per kilometer (approximately USD 1.06 per km), (around RMB 7.5, approximately USD 1.04). Keeta has also enhanced competitiveness by onboarding globally and locally renowned restaurant brands. At present, Keeta has reached cooperation with brands such as McDonald’s, Jollibee, and Starbucks. In Saudi Arabia, Keeta already has 13,000 partner restaurants and more than 15,000 registered riders. After several months of development, Keeta’s market share in Saudi Arabia has risen to 10%, and its app ranks first in downloads.
As Keeta rapidly deploys across the Middle Eastern market, its future development path and the challenges it faces are becoming increasingly clear. At the beginning of this year, Meituan’s management proposed the goal of “covering the six Gulf countries within three years,” demonstrating a long-term commitment to the Middle Eastern market.
However, Keeta also faces multiple challenges in the process of overseas expansion. Differences in culture, consumption habits, and laws and regulations across regions are the primary obstacles. The changing geopolitical environment in the Middle East is also a risk factor that cannot be ignored. Compared with one year ago, the Middle East’s geopolitical landscape has undergone substantial changes, and Meituan’s further business rollout still needs to choose the right timing and align with local developments. The depth of localized operations is another area in which Keeta needs continuous optimization. Meituan’s commercial operating model in each country cannot be a simple copy-and-paste, but must comply with local laws and regulations, bring benefits and value to local partners, and maximize the interests of all parties.
On the competitive front, as Keeta enters, existing local enterprises may adopt more proactive response strategies. In the Saudi market, HungerStation has introduced promotions such as one year of free delivery and vouchers to attract new users and consolidate its market position. In the face of these challenges, Keeta will need to demonstrate sufficient flexibility and adaptability.
From Hong Kong to Riyadh and then to Abu Dhabi, Keeta has written, in 14 months, the “most aggressive” sample of a Chinese local-services company going abroad.
But the Middle East is not a battlefield where “burning money guarantees victory”: behind the high average order value are high costs, high compliance, and high cultural barriers. Whether it can still maintain 35-minute fulfillment after “subsidy tapering,” and whether it can tear open a gap in “high-end supply” against Talabat, will determine whether Keeta is merely “another Chinese story,” or truly becomes “the infrastructure of Middle Eastern food delivery.”
Next stop, Brazil! The exam bell has only just rung.
[Disclaimer]: The above content reflects analysis of publicly available information, expert insights, and BCC research. It does not constitute investment advice. BCC is not responsible for any losses resulting from reliance on the views expressed herein. Investors should exercise caution.