Staying nimble to capitalize on this online to offline (or "O2O") trend allowed Meituan to accelerate while Alibaba was caught flat-footed. However real world services was only 5% online, and poised to grow even faster. Chinese e-commerce was a 20% saturation industry in 2017 and still growing nicely.When you spot a market that's both large and growing fast - ride that wave!!
Again with few exceptions, western tech companies completely misunderstand how to execute this playbook effectively.ΔΆ. Meituan and Amazon's new initiatives often lack polish - but they either quickly bring in $billions of revenue, or they die and the company goes on to the next one.
What makes it so special, and how were they able to become the market leader in such a competitive space? This story is packed with lessons that apply equally beyond China tech to high-growth company building and investing everywhere. Already China's 3rd largest tech company by market cap (behind just Tencent and Alibaba), Meituan did $15 billion in net revenue in FY2019 and continues to grow rapidly.
We dive into the history behind Meituan, the juggernaut Chinese "super-app" which dominates China's services economy, offering consumers everything from food delivery, restaurant reviews, travel booking, bike-sharing, movie ticketing, and countless other entertainment and lifestyle services all at the touch of a button.
The Complete History and Strategy of Meituan