Meituan's recent Annual Shareholder Meeting was brimming with insights. Executives such as Wang Xing and Chen Shaohui eschewed grandiose strategic visions, opting instead to confront the missteps of the past five years head-on, while simultaneously outlining Meituan's future strategies to the market.

In essence, Meituan is acknowledging its faults internally, defending its position externally, and gearing up to 'raise capital' in the financial markets.

1

Acknowledging Errors in Community Group Buying:

Fresh Produce Demands More Than Just Traffic Generation—It Requires Dedicated Effort

Wang Xing openly admitted two significant regrets: one was the delay in international expansion, which caused Meituan to miss the peak years of overseas food delivery market penetration; the other was the discontinuation of 'Meituan Youxuan'.

Why did Meituan Youxuan falter despite substantial investments? Wang Xing was candid: the business model was flawed. Relying solely on merchant bidding for non-standardized products led to incessant price-cutting to secure bids, ultimately compromising quality and driving users away.

In simple terms, fresh produce is a unique category. It's a daily necessity but also the most challenging business—characterized by low margins, high spoilage rates, and zero brand loyalty. Consumers are pragmatic: they'll flock to you if you're a dime cheaper today, but they'll just as easily leave if a competitor offers a coupon tomorrow.

Meituan was accustomed to leveraging an internet-based 'asset-light' matching logic to drive traffic, a strategy that works swiftly but falls short in the fresh produce sector. To foster loyalty, the only viable approach is to 'go heavy'—the most arduous task: directly contracting with producers, handling sorting and processing in-house, and investing heavily in cold chain logistics. Only by maximizing supply chain efficiency can real cost savings and stable quality be achieved.

Meituan has applied these lessons to its new venture, 'Happy Monkey' (a hard-discount supermarket). This project, spearheaded by the former Youxuan team, has abandoned virtual online traffic strategies in favor of focusing on hard discounts, developing private-label brands, and forging direct factory partnerships. Meituan has fully embraced this reality: no more pure online intermediaries—it's time to roll up sleeves and build robust supply chains.

2

The RMB 200 Billion Food Delivery Battle:

Actually Just a Futile Internal Squabble Within Existing Markets

Meituan CFO Chen Shaohui crunched the numbers at the meeting: over the past year (2025), the entire industry has poured RMB 200 billion into the food delivery wars.

But Meituan's assessment of this RMB 200 billion expenditure? A futile internal competition that has generated no new value.

Meituan and Alibaba (Ele.me) have fundamentally different perspectives on food delivery:

Meituan contends: The domestic food delivery market has already reached its peak, with a finite user base. Daily coupon wars don't create new orders—they merely shuffle users between two apps, squandering money. If that RMB 200 billion had been channeled into supporting Keeta's international expansion instead, the returns could have been substantially higher.

Alibaba (Ele.me) believes: Food delivery is a battle worth fighting. It's the highest-frequency instant delivery gateway, driving continuous data and traffic, stimulating consumption, and serving as a testing ground for the group's AI and autonomous delivery technologies—a long-term ecological investment.

The RMB 200 billion spent has been particularly taxing on merchants. They face a dilemma: on one hand, they hope the two giants continue their battle to prevent platforms from squeezing commissions too hard; on the other, they fear being collateral damage as platforms impose low-price promotions to meet targets, further eroding their already thin profits.

Yet, in this war of attrition, Meituan remains confident. Chen Shaohui revealed a crucial metric: in high-value orders exceeding RMB 30, Meituan commands over 70% market share. This indicates that while both sides burn money, the lucrative high-ticket market remains firmly in Meituan's grasp, with the per-order profit gap actually widening.

3

RMB 65 Billion in 'Investments' in Reserve:

Planning to Liquidate for Buybacks and Strategic Reserves

Beyond business operations, shareholders are most concerned about Meituan's stock price. Management's stance is unequivocal: the stock is significantly undervalued, and the company intends to repurchase its own shares.

Where will the funds come from? Meituan has revealed its hidden financial arsenal. Chen Shaohui stated that the company holds investment assets with a combined book value exceeding RMB 65 billion.

This includes listed or high-flying companies like Li Auto and Zhipu AI, as well as unicorns like Unitree Technology (robotics). Wang Xing and Chen Shaohui conveyed a unified message: once lock-up periods expire, Meituan will actively consider monetizing these assets at the opportune moment, converting 'paper wealth' into tangible cash.

This signals a shift in Meituan's strategic thinking. During its cash-rich phase, it operated like a venture capitalist, investing liberally to build ecosystems and spin compelling narratives. Now, the tides have turned, and Meituan plans to secure these 'paper gains' as real cash. Whether used to bolster the stock price through buybacks or to fund 'Happy Monkey's' supply chain expansion, this RMB 65 billion cash flow is far more valuable than dormant book entries.

Finally, Wang Xing provided shareholders with a confidence boost: since founding the company, he has never sold a single Meituan share and has no plans to do so. This underscores the founder's unwavering commitment to aligning with all shareholders.

After observing the entire shareholder meeting, it's evident that Meituan has adopted a pragmatic—even 'frugal'—approach.

It no longer spins tales of boundless expansion, openly acknowledging delays in international expansion and missteps in community group buying. Faced with a RMB 200 billion rival siege, it clings tenaciously to its core high-value market above RMB 30. The RMB 65 billion in investments it holds is earmarked for monetization and cash recovery.

Despite paying hefty tuition fees, this is the most straightforward path to survival for internet giants at this juncture.

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