China’s food delivery industry is experiencing intensifying “internal competition,” as the industry giant “Meituan” reported its first loss in three years. In the third quarter, Meituan’s adjusted net loss reached 16 billion yuan, a drastic decrease of 225% compared to the same period last year. The core local business operating profit turned negative, with a loss of 14.1 billion yuan, plummeting by 197% year-on-year.
Meituan’s financial report for the third quarter of 2025, released on November 28, showed that the company’s operating revenue was 95.488 billion yuan, a 2.0% year-on-year increase. The adjusted net loss was 16.01 billion yuan, a steep decline from a profit of 12.829 billion yuan in the same period last year, marking a 225% decrease. Despite a significant 89% drop in adjusted net profit in the second quarter of this year, Meituan still recorded a profit of 1.49 billion yuan.
Due to intensified industry competition, the core local business operating profit turned negative, resulting in a loss of 14.1 billion yuan, exceeding market expectations. In the same period in 2024, Meituan recorded a profit of 14.6 billion yuan, down by 197% year-on-year.
Meituan attributes this situation to adjusting its business strategy in response to the intense competition in the food delivery industry. Data shows that the company’s sales and marketing expenses surged by 90.9% year-on-year to 34.3 billion yuan, increasing from 19.2% to 35.9% of revenue. Additionally, to ensure the stability of real-time delivery services and enhance user stickiness, subsidies for delivery riders were increased, further raising sales costs.
Meituan stated that the market competition remains fierce recently, and it expects the trend of operating losses to continue in the fourth quarter for the core local business sector and the overall company.
In September of this year, Alibaba’s subsidiary, Amap, launched “Amap Street Ranking,” pledging “never commercialization” and planning to invest over 1 billion yuan in subsidies, using travel behavior data to establish an evaluation system. On November 17, JD.com’s Dianping and “JD Truth List” officially launched, recruiting 100,000 “Truth-seeking Officials” to conduct blind tests. Meanwhile, Xiaohongshu launched “Xiaohong Card,” and Douyin introduced “Fireworks Ranking.”
In addition, Meituan’s Hong Kong-listed shares have fallen by 32.42% this year due to performance pressure.