The State Administration for Market Regulation recently forwarded an Economic Daily article titled “The Food Delivery War Should End” — a move the market read as an unambiguous regulatory signal calling a halt to platform subsidy competition and steering the industry toward more sustainable development. Meituan-W closed up more than 10% on the day of the publication. Standing at the opening year of the 15th Five-Year Plan, China’s local services industry has completed a fundamental shift: the traffic-dividend era of scale-at-any-cost has given way to an efficiency-driven contest over value creation. How Meituan navigates intense competition and rebuilds its commercial moat will be one of the defining business stories of the year.
Q4 2025 Earnings Overview
Meituan-W’s fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 results demonstrated meaningful operational resilience under conditions of intense competitive pressure.
Total revenue in the fourth quarter reached RMB 92.1 billion (approximately USD 12.79 billion), up 4.1% year-on-year. Full-year total revenue came in at RMB 364.9 billion (approximately USD 50.68 billion), up 8.1% year-on-year. Despite the headwinds of consumption stratification and a challenging macro environment, experts interviewed by BCC noted that Meituan’s daily active user base has crossed the 250 to 260 million threshold, up approximately 20% to 30% year-on-year — sustaining its position as the dominant super-entrance for local services in the minds of Chinese consumers.
On profitability, the full year swung to a net loss of RMB 23.4 billion (approximately USD 3.25 billion). However, operating losses in the core local commerce segment narrowed significantly: from RMB 14.1 billion (approximately USD 1.96 billion) in the third quarter to RMB 10.0 billion (approximately USD 1.39 billion) in the fourth quarter, a sequential improvement of 29%. The trend points to a meaningful increase in Meituan’s subsidy efficiency and overall business quality.
On the credit side, S&P Global on March 4, 2026 downgraded Meituan’s rating from A- to BBB+ with a negative outlook, citing sustained margin pressure from the on-demand delivery subsidy contest with Alibaba and potential challenges in defending market share. Notwithstanding, Meituan’s cash and cash equivalents stood at RMB 166.8 billion (approximately USD 23.17 billion) at year-end 2025, providing a substantial operational buffer.
Business Strategy and Competitive Positioning
Food Delivery: Precision-Tuning the Per-Order Economics
According to BCC Research, Meituan’s core objective for food delivery in 2026 is to transition from subsidizing market share to achieving unit-economics breakeven. The plan involves adjusting the product mix and reducing subsidies to both users and merchants, with a target of reaching a per-order contribution of RMB 0 by the end of June. Meituan’s structural advantage in this effort lies in its per-order fulfillment costs, which are lower than peers — a function of its higher closed-loop rate and its ability to monitor merchant capacity bidding through proprietary dispatch tools. Complementing this, an increased subsidy share to crowdsourced riders (which can reach 45%) underpins fulfillment stability, forming what amounts to a physical moat in last-mile delivery.
Meituan Instashopping: Defending Dominance in Instant Retail
Meituan’s to-home business shares a similar competitive foundation — cost advantages in fulfillment capacity and deep merchant stickiness, particularly in lower-tier cities built up over years of investment. China’s instant retail market is expected to cross the RMB 1 trillion mark (approximately USD 138.89 billion) in 2026. Against Alibaba Flash Sale’s aggressive target of RMB 600 billion (approximately USD 83.33 billion) in non-food category payment volume for 2026, Meituan is working to defend a leading market share above 50%.
BCC Research identifies Meituan’s core differentiation as generational leadership in the “2.0 vertical warehouse” model — co-building with brand partners across categories including mother-and-baby, consumer electronics, and beauty to drive high-speed growth in higher-ticket segments. In categories such as fresh produce, snack foods, and staples, Hema can leverage its offline NB store network for supply chain linkage, while Xiaoxiang’s front-warehouse footprint remains insufficient. Meituan has moved to address this gap by acquiring Dingdong Maicai’s China business, and the subsequent integration of supply chain assets and high-value customer base warrants close attention.
In-Store and Travel & Hospitality: The High-Margin Ballast
Facing competitive pressure from platforms such as Douyin in local services, Meituan’s 2026 in-store strategy prioritizes simultaneous scale and profitability. BCC-interviewed experts note that Meituan’s dine-in verification rate stands at approximately 87% to 88%, still materially higher than peers — a reflection of strong merchant advertising intent and an expanding order funnel built through cross-collaboration channels including scan-to-pay, livestream commerce, and group deal promotions. In the comprehensive-services segment, advertising delivery efficiency is running at its highest level, with ad revenue growing while commission revenue edges lower — consistent with the structural logic of a maturing platform market. The migration of Meituan’s large membership system into the in-store vertical, combined with high-conversion precision search, is directing the business directly toward transaction volume rather than traffic accumulation.
For travel and hospitality in 2026, Meituan’s growth agenda centers on deepening cooperation with mid-to-high-star hotels, promoting cross-scenario linkage between lodging, dining, and entertainment, and further penetrating lower-tier markets. In the low-star hotel segment, Meituan holds an entrenched position: through year-round buyout agreements, it operates a procurement-sales separation model that effectively monopolizes room supply at targeted properties. In the mid-to-high-star segment, the push involves deepening direct inventory connectivity and price synchronization with hotel brands, refining membership-tier matching — covering benefits such as complimentary breakfast, room upgrades, late checkout, and points accrual — and expanding coverage through tools such as “Pin Hao Fang,” AI-assisted inventory governance, and a deliberate downmarket extension into mid-to-high-star hotels in third- and fourth-tier cities.
The AI Strategy: A Study in Contrasts
CEO Wang Xing has positioned AI as “a once-in-a-decade opportunity for local services.” In practice, Meituan’s 2026 AI investment reflects a clear strategic duality.
On one side, Meituan’s research and development spending is expected to be approximately RMB 12 billion to RMB 13 billion (approximately USD 1.67 billion to USD 1.81 billion) — not a top-tier figure among Chinese technology companies. Rather than committing to a direct contest in general-purpose large models, Meituan is pursuing what might be characterized as disciplined catch-up: building sufficient AI capability to defend its existing businesses rather than seeking leadership in foundational model development.
On the other side, the launch of AI super-assistants Xiaomei and Xiaotuan represents a more consequential bet. By combining AI intent understanding with Meituan’s full-scenario closed-loop — chaining actions such as selecting a restaurant, ordering delivery, hailing a ride, and purchasing flowers into a seamless single-tap flow — the company is attempting to reshape how traffic enters and moves across its platform. If successful, this could meaningfully increase per-user transaction frequency, provide a structural counter to the algorithmic pull of short-video recommendation feeds, and enable cross-business traffic allocation at scale.
Meituan in 2026 is navigating the deep water of an efficiency transition. Its core advantages — an accumulated offline fulfillment network and an exceptionally high order verification rate — remain structurally durable. Sustained competitive pressure from major internet platforms across multiple business lines, however, has not relented. The regulatory signal may mark the beginning of a more stable operating environment, but the path back to consistent profitability will require both continued cost discipline in core operations and a genuine contribution from AI application. How Meituan manages that combination will determine the shape of its next chapter.
[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.