--- title: "Meituan's Wang Puzhong first talks about the food delivery war: In an unprecedented bubble, involution is burning the industry." type: "Topics" locale: "zh-HK" url: "https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/topics/31967844.md" description: "Source: Dongge's E-commerce Analysis Author: Jinshan Meituan finally couldn't hold back from speaking out. Recently, Wang Puzhong, the core business operator of Meituan, gave his first interview to LatePost. This is also the first public interview by Meituan's core management team in eight years. "The bubble in this food delivery war is unprecedented. Only when the tide recedes will we know who's been swimming naked," Wang Puzhong clearly stated. "I think this kind of cutthroat competition is meaningless and harmful to the industry. But before the battle begins, if you say this to your competitors, they won't believe you. They'll just think you're scared and will become even more aggressive." Will this round of food delivery war turn into a futile internal competition? The food delivery bubble..." datetime: "2025-07-18T10:09:50.000Z" locales: - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/topics/31967844.md) - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/topics/31967844.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/topics/31967844.md) author: "[东哥解读电商](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/profiles/2290632.md)" --- > 支持的語言: [English](https://longbridge.com/en/topics/31967844.md) | [简体中文](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/topics/31967844.md) # Meituan's Wang Puzhong first talks about the food delivery war: In an unprecedented bubble, involution is burning the industry. Source: Dongge's E-commerce Insights Author: Jin Shan Meituan couldn't hold back from speaking out. Recently, Wang Puzhong, the core business operator of Meituan, gave his first interview to LatePost. This is also the first public interview by Meituan's core management team in eight years. "**The bubble in this food delivery war is unprecedented. Only when the tide goes out will we see who's been swimming naked.**" Wang Puzhong clearly stated, **"I think this kind of competition is meaningless and harmful to the industry. But before the battle starts, if you say this to your competitors, they won't believe you. They'll just think you're scared and will become even more aggressive."** Will this round of the food delivery war be a futile internal competition? **The Food Delivery Bubble: The Hidden Pain of the Industry Amid Order Frenzy** In just six months, the total volume of the instant retail market has doubled from 100 million daily orders at the beginning of the year to 250 million. This doesn't seem like a normal growth rate. Last Saturday, Meituan announced its latest report, with daily orders reaching 150 million, with actual investment of less than 800 million yuan. Taobao Flash Sale, in collaboration with Ele.me, announced that excluding self-pickup and zero-yuan purchases, daily orders have exceeded 80 million. Daily active users reached 200 million, a net increase of 15% month-on-month. JD.com's food delivery service only announced on June 1 that daily orders had exceeded 25 million. Based solely on order volume, Meituan's market share has dropped from 70% to 60% last week. Order quantity and GTV are two different things. Wang Puzhong stated that the market share for orders above 30 yuan has always exceeded 70%. Consumers stockpile milk tea to meet discount thresholds, leading to waste, with some stores discarding hundreds of unclaimed drinks in a single day. Meanwhile, users who genuinely need meals face delays due to delivery capacity overload. Under massive subsidies, consumers always feel like they're missing out if they don't buy. But the key is how many users are retained after the subsidies end. Some consumers said, "Ordering eight cups a day and drinking them slowly as stock," "I might get diabetes from drinking so much," and "The biggest victim of the food delivery war is me—I've gained several pounds in a month." **The truth about order surges is that platforms can generate as many orders as they want through subsidies. Orders become just a number.** **Many restaurant owners report that dine-in traffic has noticeably declined.** Some said food delivery now accounts for 70% of their business, a complete reversal. Consumers are drawn to the attractive discount prices on the platforms and prefer ordering in. For businesses, they often lack decision-making power in this food delivery war. If they don't participate in the platform's subsidy activities, their stores struggle to gain high traffic and may even be ignored by customers, losing their place in the fierce competition. It's a case of "can't survive without the platform, forced to follow along." Once they join the activities, they face numerous problems. Businesses not only have to bear part or even most of the subsidy costs but may also face operational pressures such as sudden surges in orders leading to insufficient staff and unprepared ingredients, along with declining profits. Since the food delivery war began, Nanchengxiang's daily total revenue has increased by about 30%-35%. However, dine-in sales haven't grown and have even declined in some locations. Total profits have increased by 15%. They're making money but aren't happy because the stores are too busy, and service staff can't keep up. Product prices continue to fall, and users think low prices are the norm. **Meituan has been forced into this war. In the latest order surge battle, it has incurred lower costs.** Last week, Meituan launched a "zero-yuan food delivery" campaign. Consumers can place orders for free and pick them up in-store. With discount coupons, users may pay a few yuan, but the platform's subsidies to merchants and delivery riders often exceed 10 yuan per order. Meituan's "zero-yuan food delivery" is mainly achieved through centralized platform procurement, with actual costs possibly just a few yuan per cup. Since no delivery is needed, the cost is essentially just the product itself. Some media estimate that zero-yuan self-pickup orders may reach 40 million. Food delivery is becoming a test of the platform's systemic capabilities. **Pinduoduo and Douyin: Non-Participating "Opportunists"?** Pinduoduo and Douyin are currently the two food delivery platforms not participating in the instant retail war. **First, they may not lack traffic. They don't urgently need to use food delivery to drive traffic to their main businesses, especially Douyin.** Douyin once aggressively expanded into instant retail but gradually scaled back due to various factors. Douyin lacks its own logistics system, relying on third-party delivery services for one-hour delivery, resulting in high fulfillment costs and unstable timeliness. Additionally, Douyin lacks a front-end warehouse layout, and its product SKUs are limited by partner inventories, making it difficult to meet diverse user needs. Second, there may be weak relevance between their food delivery business and main operations. The core categories of instant retail are often high-frequency, essential, and low-price products, with user decisions relying on price and delivery speed. Douyin's content ecosystem is better suited for high-margin, non-standard product recommendations, creating a mismatch in category characteristics and user expectations. Duoduomaicai is about to launch 30-minute delivery. According to media reports, Duoduomaicai has secretly tested self-built product warehouses in first-tier cities like Shanghai and plans to officially launch instant delivery services by August 2025. Pinduoduo responded that this does not represent the company's strategic direction, emphasizing it won't touch food delivery and has no intention of joining the instant retail war. Pinduoduo's battlefield also involves overseas operations like TEMU, requiring capital to counter risks from trade wars. **If the ongoing food delivery war is just a bubble, Pinduoduo and Douyin, having saved their resources, might invest elsewhere, such as their main e-commerce battlegrounds, to capture more market share.** The core role of food delivery is to drive traffic, but local life services ultimately rely on high-margin businesses like travel for profits. Douyin, with its traffic, has already set its sights on the next battle. Reports suggest Douyin is targeting the OTA business, planning to invest hundreds of millions in subsidies for official hotel livestreams and new customer bookings. OTA has become the next battleground. The current endless war is irrational, but once it starts, it's hard to stop. This Saturday to be another bloodbath. For consumers, it's another chance to happily grab discounts. References: 1\. LatePost: Exclusive Interview with Meituan's Wang Puzhong: We Don't Want to Compete, But We Have to Fight Back 2\. National Business Daily: "Making More Money But Not Happy!" Founder of Beijing's Well-Known Chain with 200 Stores: Businesses Have No Choice in the Food Delivery War 3\. Inside and Outside the Table: Restaurant Owners Trapped in the Food Delivery War 4\. Red Star News: Businesses Respond to Lack of Profits in "Food Delivery War": Estimated Profits Down 20% to 30%, Sellers Bear at Least 12 Yuan of 18-Yuan Coupons, Sometimes Even Losing Money 5\. E-Commerce: The Food Delivery Industry, a Tale of Two Extremes ### 相關股票 - [MEITUAN-WR (83690.HK)](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/quote/83690.HK.md) - [Meituan (MPNGY.US)](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/quote/MPNGY.US.md) - [MEITUAN (03690.HK)](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/quote/03690.HK.md) - [Meituan HK SDR 5to1 (HMTD.SG)](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/quote/HMTD.SG.md)