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.
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
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