The next decade of Meituan: food retail, globalization, and AI

Meituan CEO Wang Xing held a strategic review meeting on February 28, emphasizing the key directions for Meituan in the next decade: In addition to the core local lifestyle business, food retail, globalization, and technology will become the three main focuses.

In this regard, Citigroup is bullish on Meituan, with analysts Alicia Yap, Vicky Wei, and others releasing a report stating that Meituan's fresh food retail business is highly aligned with the instant retail delivery strategy that Meituan has vigorously promoted in recent years, as there are natural cross-selling opportunities between the fresh food retail business and the takeaway business.

Furthermore, since incorporating overseas expansion into its key strategic direction in 2024, Meituan has steadily advanced its penetration in the Middle Eastern market—Meituan's first overseas destination is Saudi Arabia, and it will also consider markets in Japan, South Korea, North Africa, and Latin America in the future.

Three Major Directions for the Next Decade

2024 marks the 15th anniversary of Meituan's establishment. Wang Xing emphasized that in the next decade, Meituan will focus on the following three major directions in addition to its core local lifestyle business:

1. Food Retail: Corresponding to Meituan's long-term mission of "helping everyone eat better and live better," the business focus will cover self-operated fresh food retail and platform retail business;
2. Globalization: Referring to the overseas expansion of takeaway and other businesses, including Keeta (Meituan's takeaway brand in Hong Kong and overseas), drone delivery, etc. Meituan hopes that the future market size of its takeaway business can reach $100 billion, which means that Meituan's takeaway business will cover overseas markets outside of China;
3. Technology: Meituan aims to seize the opportunities presented by AI development to build a large-scale, comprehensive, in-depth, and ecologically healthy local business system.

Progress of Meituan's Expansion in the Middle East

Meituan's global expansion is progressing rapidly, with Keeta accelerating its expansion in the Saudi Arabian market, currently covering nine major cities and nearly half of the population in Saudi Arabia. Next, Keeta plans to enter the markets of Kuwait and the UAE.

According to reports, Meituan has developed a three-year plan to comprehensively layout in six Middle Eastern countries (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, and Bahrain).

By 2025, Keeta plans to cover all core cities in Saudi Arabia and gradually increase its market share in these markets