Food delivery giant Meituan Dianping posts quarterly revenue decline amid Covid-19 disruptions
- Meituan reported lower first-quarter revenue and a wider net loss from a year ago
- It warned that factors such as ongoing pandemic precautions and decline in offline consumption would continue to affect its business performance
Meituan Dianping, China’s largest on-demand services provider, reported a 12.6 per cent drop in first-quarter revenue, as the coronavirus pandemic disrupted the company’s food delivery operations and other businesses across the country.
Although the weak results in the March quarter were expected, Meituan co-founder and chief executive Wang Xing warned of further challenges for the company in the next few quarters, he said in a conference call with analysts after the market closed on Monday.
“There are still uncertainties and potential downsides amid the ongoing evolution of the Covid-19 situation,” Wang said. “A large number of local service merchants are still struggling for survival.”
He vowed that Meituan “will remain focused and allocate sufficient amount of resources towards helping merchants resume business, improve their efficiencies and digitise their operations”
China’s largest food delivery services provider posted revenue of 16.7 billion yuan (US$2.3 billion) in the quarter ended March 31, down from US$19.2 billion yuan in the same period last year but ahead of market analysts’ consensus estimate of 15.6 billion yuan. It also reported a wider net loss of 1.6 billion in the first quarter, compared with 1.4 billion yuan a year earlier.