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ByteDance primes short video app Douyin to challenge Meituan in on-demand local services amid China’s push to revive economy
- Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, has been making aggressive moves in food delivery and other segments of on-demand e-commerce in the country
- This sector is expected to be worth more than US$5.17 trillion by 2025, according to market research firm iResearch
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Ben Jiangin Beijing
When Meituan founder and chief executive Wang Xing was asked last November about the rapid rise of competition in China’s on-demand local services sector, he suggested that the company was way ahead of any would-be rival.
“We can better meet users’ demand … and merchants’ needs,” Wang said in a conference call with analysts after Beijing-based Meituan reported a 1.2 billion yuan (US$179 million) net profit in the three months to September, ending seven consecutive quarters of losses.
The 43-year-old tech billionaire said Meituan, with around 70 per cent of China’s online food delivery market and 687.1 million “transacting users” in the September quarter, offered a “quite different [set of] values” to consumers and merchants compared with other service providers.
That competition, however, includes one that has more than 600 million daily active users, ByteDance-owned Douyin. The Chinese version of hit global short video service TikTok has been making aggressive moves in various segments of the on-demand e-commerce services sector, putting the industry on notice.
Apart from food and grocery deliveries, on-demand local services enable online consumers to connect with offline merchants from a wide range of fields, from various entertainment establishments to pet stores and beauty parlours. This sector is expected to be worth more than 35 trillion yuan by 2025, according to market research firm iResearch.
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