China’s leading food delivery group Meituan on Thursday reported a bigger-than-expected 25% rise in quarterly revenue, defying a slowing Chinese economy.
Meituan, which operates an app providing services as varied as bike-sharing, ticket-booking and maps, reported revenue in the three months to March 31 of 73.3 billion yuan ($10.11 billion), against 58.62 billion yuan in the same period a year earlier.
The result compared with the 70.32 billion yuan average estimate of 16 analysts compiled by LSEG.
Its profit for the quarter hit 5.2 billion yuan, increasing 59.9% from 3.36 billion yuan a year earlier.
Lacklustre economic recovery since the COVID-19 pandemic has led to low-cost and discounted products becoming the focus for shoppers and platforms alike, squeezing profit margins.
Meituan’s revenue from core local commerce, which includes food delivery and non-food delivery service Meituan Instashopping, jumped 27.4% to 54.6 billion yuan.
FILE PHOTO: Visitors stand near a booth of Meituan at the 2022 World Robot Conference in Beijing, China August 18, 2022. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang/File Photo\
Sales from new initiatives grew 18.5% to 18.7 billion yuan.
Meituan’s board authorised up to $1 billion in share buybacks beginning Dec. 1, and CEO Wang Xing has said future buybacks would be regularly evaluated, depending on investment opportunities and the firm’s financial position.
In April, Meituan began advertising jobs in Riyadh for food delivery platform KeeTa. That followed CEO Wang taking control of international business and came a year after Meituan launched KeeTa in Hong Kong.
In the first quarter, KeeTa was Hong Kong’s top food delivery app by volume of orders, with a 43% market share, showed data from analytics firm Measurable AI.
Meituan is China’s biggest delivery platform, with a 69% share of the 1 trillion yuan market, data from researcher ChinaIRN showed.
MPR TÓM TẮT BẢN TIN
- Doanh Thu Meituan: Công ty giao đồ ăn hàng đầu Trung Quốc, Meituan, đã báo cáo doanh thu quý tăng 25%, vượt qua kỳ vọng.
- Tình Hình Kinh Tế: Sự tăng trưởng này diễn ra bất chấp nền kinh tế Trung Quốc đang chậm lại.
- Kết Quả Kinh Doanh: Lợi nhuận ròng đạt 2.2 tỷ nhân dân tệ trong quý Oct-Dec 2023, so với mức lỗ 1.08 tỷ nhân dân tệ cùng kỳ năm trước.
- Phát Triển Thị Trường: Meituan đang tìm kiếm cơ hội mở rộng thị trường tại Ả Rập Saudi, với nhu cầu về chuyên gia phát triển kinh doanh, thu hút người dùng và giữ chân khách hàng.
