Meituan warns of US$3.5 billion loss amid intense food delivery price war

China’s food delivery giant Meituan on Friday warned that it expected to post a loss of up to 24.3 billion yuan (US$3.5 billion) for 2025 due to “intense industry competition”, with the slump likely to persist this year.

The sharp reversal from 2024, when the company posted a profit of 35.8 billion yuan, comes on the back of one of China’s most intense price wars last year between Meituan, Alibaba Group Holding and JD.com in local e-commerce and food delivery, which only subsided after regulators stepped in.

Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.

In a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Friday, Meituan said expected losses for 2025 would be between 23.3 billion yuan and 24.3 billion yuan.

The company said in the statement that the downturn was mainly due to a significant hit to its core domestic e-commerce business, which went from an operating profit of around 52.42 billion yuan in 2024 to an operating loss of between 6.8 billion yuan and 7 billion yuan last year.

Increased investments to strengthen “core advantages” amid intense competition were blamed for the mounting losses, including spending on marketing, lowering prices and increasing incentives for delivery workers.