Meituan hits record 120 million daily orders on July 5 amid China's instant delivery price war
South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that food deliveries made up the bulk of yesterday's transactions, with 100 million orders or 83 per cent of the total.
It added that the surge briefly overwhelmed Meituan's servers, causing temporary outages in some areas, the company said in a statement. Services resumed within hours after emergency safeguards were triggered.
The spike in volume comes as China's e-commerce giants, including Alibaba and JD.com, intensify efforts to carve out a bigger slice of the instant delivery market — a sector Meituan has long dominated.
The scramble to lure shoppers has sparked a fresh round of aggressive price cuts and subsidies, as the platforms vie for consumer attention in a sluggish economy.
SCMP also reported that Alibaba, which recently launched Taobao Instant Commerce, announced a one-year subsidy plan worth 50 billion yuan (RM30 billion) to fuel growth. Its platform has already hit 60 million daily orders as of late June, with fulfilment handled by food delivery arm Ele.me.
Meanwhile, JD.com, which entered the food delivery space in February, told SCMP its platform hit 25 million daily orders by June 18.
Meituan, which controls about 70 per cent of China's food delivery market, has responded with deep discounts — including coffee deals as low as 2 yuan — to hold its lead.
The company's financials remain strong: it posted an 18 per cent rise in first-quarter revenue to 86.6 billion yuan, while net profit jumped 87.3 per cent to 10 billion yuan.
For 2023, Meituan reported 22 per cent revenue growth to 337.6 billion yuan, and a 158 per cent leap in earnings to 35.8 billion yuan.
Surging demand briefly crashes platform as Alibaba and JD.com challenge Meituan's dominance
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