Meituan captures record orders as e-commerce war fuels demand for delivery

Meituan said daily transaction volume on its dominant on-demand delivery reached an all-time high since its inception in 2010, briefly crashing its platform as online purchases surged amid a fresh round of price war among China’s e-commerce leaders.

Daily orders of food and retail goods for its instant delivery service surpassed 120 million on Saturday, according to the company, with food orders accounting for 100 million or 83 per cent of them.

Meituan’s delivery services suffered a technical breakdown in certain areas during the day as “the number of user orders exceeded the historical peak”, triggering temporary protective measures from its servers, Meituan said in a statement on Saturday. The problem was resolved within hours, it added.

The surge in volume came as China’s major e-commerce players – Alibaba Group Holding, JD.com and Meituan – stepped up their bets on instant delivery services in mainland China to compete for consumers. The rivalry is set to spur anaemic spending, which has dwindled amid concerns about China’s economic outlook.

Alibaba, which owns the South China Morning Post, pushed into the sector through its service known as Taobao Instant Commerce. It earlier this week announced a 50 billion yuan (US$7 billion) one-year subsidy programme. Meituan on Saturday offered discounts that cut the price of a cup of coffee to as low as 2 yuan, media reports showed.