Meituan posts another loss, but says food-delivery wars are beginning to abate

Casey Hall

2nd Jun 2026

Chinese food delivery leader Meituan on Monday posted a third consecutive quarterly loss and met revenue growth estimates as a year of bruising, subsidy-fuelled competition in China’s one-hour delivery space showed signs of easing.

Meituan’s revenue growth and profits have faced pressure for several quarters since e-commerce giants Taobao, owned by Alibaba, and JD launched new ‘instant retail’ platforms in early 2025.

Instant retail or quick commerce refers to online purchases – often of food, bubble tea and other daily use items – that are delivered within 60 minutes.

Since early 2026 – following repeated criticism by Chinese regulators who dubbed the instant retail battle a ‘race to the bottom’ – discounting activity on food delivery platforms has subsided as the industry enters a more normal phase of growth.

Meituan’s revenue for the quarter ended March 31 reached 91 billion yuan (US$13.45 billion), a 5.6 per cent rise from a year earlier, in line with analyst expectations.

Its adjusted net loss narrowed to 4.97 billion yuan from a 15.1 billion yuan loss in the fourth quarter. A year earlier, Meituan posted a profit of 10.9 billion yuan.

“With industry-wide subsidies finally getting more rational we are seeing a shift back to the fundamentals of operational efficiencies and user experience,” CEO Wang Xing told analysts. “This transition plays to our strengths.”

In April, China’s market regulator fined seven e-commerce platforms – including Meituan – a combined 3.6 billion yuan over food delivery safety violations.

Last week, China’s State Administration for Market Regulation instructed local regulators to carry out a special inspection campaign until December on companies operating in sectors from live-streaming to food delivery in an effort to prevent what it calls “involution”-style price wars.

• Reporting by Casey Hall in Shanghai; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus and Louise Heavens, of Reuters.