Despite JD.com's aggressive foray into Meituan's territory, the latter remains largely unaffected, with the real competition brewing in the realm of instant retail.

Produced by｜New Product Strategy Finance

Author｜Wu Wenwu

Since JD.com launched its surprise attack on Meituan's food delivery business, every move by both parties has garnered significant market attention and sparked heated discussions.

On May 26, Wang Xing, CEO of Meituan, made a clear and confident statement regarding JD.com's multibillion-yuan food delivery subsidies: "We will spare no effort to win this competition." This was Wang Xing's first public response to JD.com's offensive against Meituan.

The following day, Liu Qiangdong attended a forum in Hangzhou and delivered a speech. During a break, a media reporter asked him about Wang Xing's statement. Liu Qiangdong replied with a smile, "Let's not talk about business." However, he also noted, "Hangzhou is renowned as the world's cuisine capital, and I promptly ordered three takeaways upon my arrival."

JD.com's push into Meituan's food delivery business has been ongoing for over three months, achieving notable results and exerting a certain influence on Meituan. Nonetheless, from an objective standpoint, JD.com's impact on Meituan remains limited.

01 JD.com's Impact on Meituan Remains Limited

The year 2025 saw the internet's super business war first ignite in the food delivery sector. In February, without prior warning, JD.com's food delivery platform embarked on a recruitment drive for high-quality dine-in restaurants, offering commission-free incentives to merchants who joined before May 1.

JD.com's food delivery categories expanded rapidly, accompanied by subsidy and welfare activities such as free shipping and discounts of 5 yuan for orders over 49 yuan, quickly attracting numerous users. "New Product Strategy Finance" personally experienced JD.com's food delivery service and found it to be quite satisfactory.

JD.com pioneered the provision of social security for food delivery riders, with the costs borne by the company, earning widespread positive public opinion. Notably, Liu Qiangdong personally delivered food, creating a memorable image.

JD.com's food delivery achievements are evident to all. Launched in February, it surpassed 10 million daily orders in just over two months and later reached 20 million daily orders within 75 days.

During an earnings call held in mid-May, Xu Ran, CEO of JD.com Group, specifically mentioned that new business explorations, represented by food delivery, have yielded encouraging initial results.

While JD.com's food delivery will undoubtedly impact Meituan's business, according to Meituan's latest financial report data, the impact remains limited. Meituan's first-quarter 2025 financial report, released on May 26, revealed revenues of 86.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 18.1%. The core local commerce business generated revenues of 64.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 17.8%. Both delivery services and commission income achieved year-on-year growth of over 20%.

The financial report data indicates that transaction activity on the Meituan platform remained high during this period. At least for the first two months of the quarter, when JD.com's food delivery was aggressively entering the market, Meituan experienced only limited impact.

Interestingly, while JD.com actively releases its daily order volumes, Meituan chose not to disclose the average daily order volume for food delivery in this financial report. Some industry analysts speculate that Meituan's daily food delivery orders grew by approximately 10% year-on-year, totaling around 58 million orders.

Wang Xing's public response to the food delivery war, expressing his determination to win at all costs, was also underpinned by Meituan's ample cash flow to support its operations. As of March 31, Meituan held cash and cash equivalents of 115 billion yuan and short-term financial investments of 65.4 billion yuan.

It's worth noting that JD.com's increased subsidies for food delivery began in March, and the full impact on Meituan's core local business has yet to be fully realized. The true extent of JD.com's food delivery impact on Meituan will become apparent with Meituan's second-quarter financial report data.

Based on Meituan's latest first-quarter financial report data and Wang Xing's public response, it's evident that JD.com and its food delivery business have not significantly impacted Meituan thus far.

Simultaneously, Ele.me and Taobao officially announced their entry into the food delivery war on the last day of April, achieving impressive results. To a large extent, Ele.me's entry has alleviated pressure on Meituan and also mitigated some of the impact from JD.com's food delivery.

02 A Mutually Aggressive Battle for Instant Retail

This food delivery war, initiated aggressively by JD.com, is bound to affect Meituan. As the current leader in the food delivery industry, Meituan must respond to new competitors.

However, the market is paying closer attention to the unprecedented new battle for instant retail that has escalated from the food delivery war.

While using food delivery as an entry point, JD.com also promotes JD.com Instant Delivery, encompassing supermarkets and convenience stores, coffee and milk tea, group buying, fresh produce markets, among others. Leveraging JD.com stores nationwide, the long-term goal is to develop the instant retail business, with food delivery being just one aspect.

JD.com's traditional e-commerce business is under pressure, necessitating a new narrative through its food delivery business. The high traffic and frequent transactions of food delivery currently represent the most suitable new business exploration.

From Meituan's perspective, besides facing JD.com's food delivery challenge, it must also contend with Ele.me's aggressive moves. Meituan cannot overlook Ele.me's recent market performance.

On the other hand, Meituan has been testing the waters of the instant retail business and quietly developing non-food delivery services. Faced with JD.com, an e-commerce giant disrupting the food delivery sector, Meituan decided to directly focus on the instant retail business. On April 15, Meituan announced that Meituan Flash Delivery had become an independent brand.

Meituan Flash Delivery swiftly expanded its national presence, transitioning from meal delivery to delivering "everything" and partnering with brands like Huawei, Xiaomi, and Apple. Notably, 3C and digital products are JD.com's strengths.

While JD.com's entry into food delivery has nibbled at Meituan's market share, Meituan's focus on flash delivery and rapid development of instant retail can be seen as a direct attack on JD.com's core business. The competition between JD.com and Meituan is inherently a mutually aggressive battle for instant retail.

Similarly, Meituan did not disclose the average daily order volume of flash delivery in its latest quarterly report, but it can be inferred that Meituan Flash Delivery has maintained a robust growth trajectory.

According to Meituan, as of the end of March, the cumulative number of transaction users on Meituan Flash Delivery exceeded 500 million, primarily comprising young people born in the 1990s. Clearly, Meituan Flash Delivery has been attractive to young consumers.

Although Meituan did not disclose the average daily order volume of flash delivery in its latest financial report, Wang Puzhong, a senior executive at Meituan, revealed in mid-April that the daily order volume of instant retail for non-catering categories on Meituan had surpassed 18 million orders, which was interpreted by the market as a veiled message to JD.com's food delivery.

With Ele.me and Taobao also joining the food delivery war and the new battle for instant retail, JD.com and Meituan now face a common formidable competitor.

03 Instant Retail: The New Highlight of This Year's 618

Although this year's food delivery war has brought a long-awaited new commercial battle to the internet industry, food delivery is a long-term business and a protracted war.

For JD.com, as a new entrant, it remains to be seen how much resources and funds it can continue to invest in developing its food delivery business. This is directly linked to the level of subsidies and marketing efforts targeted at consumers, testing JD.com's endurance in the food delivery sector.

However, variables have emerged in this food delivery war. For instance, on May 13, the State Administration for Market Regulation, along with five other departments including the Central Social Work Department, urgently summoned JD.com, Meituan, and Ele.me, the three major food delivery platforms, addressing the core issues of malicious competition, lack of rider rights protection, and food safety hazards.

On May 23, the Market Regulation Bureau of Tianfu New Area, Sichuan, held a meeting with JD.com's food delivery regarding online catering food safety issues, pointing out issues such as inconsistent merchant information, exceeding the scope of business, and low-price competition on the platform, and requiring rectifications and enhanced self-examination.

These events have been interpreted as indicating that industry regulators have taken notice of this new round of food delivery wars, which may cool down, at least temporarily.

However, in the view of "New Product Strategy Finance," compared to the food delivery business, the market is now focusing on the new battle for instant retail. The ongoing instant retail during the 618 shopping festival is the new highlight.

JD.com was the first to officially announce the launch of the 618 sales promotion, starting pre-sales early and beginning from 8 pm on May 31. It also announced significant measures such as increased subsidies, the entry of food delivery, and the launch of JD.com MALL. According to JD.com's pre-618 sales report released on May 28, over 500 million users had placed orders as of May 27, and the transaction volume of 80,000 brands had doubled year-on-year.

Similarly, Alibaba is not to be outdone. Tmall's 618 shopping festival started early, with the first wave of pre-sales beginning at 8 pm on May 13. Tmall's 618 campaign is simpler and more direct, offering official discounts starting at 15% and up to 50%, even applicable to single items. Taobao announced that it would invest 2 billion yuan in subsidies during the 618 period for Taobao Live.

Compared to previous years' 618 shopping festivals, a significant highlight of this year's 618 is the first participation of Meituan Flash Delivery.

On May 27, Meituan announced that it would collaborate with a hundred major catering and retail brands to launch a 618 sales promotion from May 28 to June 18. During the event, Meituan will issue 618 voucher packs to consumers for use in food delivery and flash delivery, covering categories such as alcoholic beverages and beverages, snack foods, digital and home appliances, beauty and skincare products.

With Meituan's participation, this year's 618 sales promotion has extended the traditional online e-commerce sales promotion to the offline instant retail sector. In other words, during this year's 618, Meituan Flash Delivery will also attract some online consumers.

This year's 618 shopping festival promises many highlights. Whether for established e-commerce players like JD.com and Alibaba or the newly entered Meituan Flash Delivery, instant retail has emerged as a key business focus for the first time amidst the intense competition during the 618 shopping festival among new and old market players.

According to the "Report on the Development of the Instant Retail Industry (2024)" released by the Ministry of Commerce Research Institute, China's instant retail scale reached 650 billion yuan in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 28.89%, accounting for 4.2% of online retail sales. It represents a new growth point for household consumption and is expected to exceed 2 trillion yuan by 2030.

In the long-term race for instant retail, major market players such as JD.com and Meituan are actively deploying strategies, striving to make instant retail a new business growth pole. No one wants to miss out.

Therefore, the true long-term competition between JD.com and Meituan lies in instant retail.