Takeaway has changed people's eating habits, no longer restricted by time and place, and can eat delicious food from all over the world anytime and anywhere. What changes has the three years of the epidemic caused to the food delivery industry? The author of this article will take Meituan Takeout as an example to analyze this and let’s take a look.
author is currently Hong Kong Polytechnic University graduate students are studying. Based on their love for Internet products, through 30+ research reports, we sorted out the key path of how Meituan Takeout can be the leading industry, and at the same time comprehensively sorted out and analyzed the products. Through this article, you can recognize different Meituan Takeout, including product development history, competitive product comparison, industry expectations and development directions under the background of the epidemic, etc. Everyone is welcome to discuss and correct me in the comment section.
1. Industry analysis
1.1 Policy level
According to the national "14th Five-Year Plan" development plan, comprehensively promotes consumption, accelerates the organic integration of online and offline consumption, and digitally revitalizes rural areas to create a sinking market and other work is the key to the future national development. This series of plans and measures are favorable policies for O2O takeaway platforms such as Meituan .
comprehensively promotes consumption, enhances the fundamental role of consumption in economic development, connects all links of production, distribution, circulation and consumption, and forms a virtuous cycle of the national economy. It is the cornerstone of the growth and development of O2O platforms such as Meituan. Accelerating the organic integration of online and offline consumption and promoting the platformization of various offline consumption industries will lead to diversified business chains, which will be conducive to industry innovation, and realize the upgrading of consumption models and organic combination of cross-fields. It is an opportunity for the growth and development of O2O platforms such as Meituan.
Sincerely develop rural areas, create a sinking market, and promote rural informatization is a key link in improving the overall informatization level of the country. The popularization of informatization in counties and villages is conducive to creating a sinking market and expanding the growth space of the industry. It is a hotbed for O2O platforms such as Meituan to achieve national popularity.
1.1.1 Comprehensively promote consumption
to create a new consumption scenario for digital life . Actively develop smart blocks and smart business districts, promote the construction of smart sports venues, encourage innovation and intelligent upgrades in business models in the fields of catering takeaway and shared travel, strengthen the construction of service terminals such as smart envelope boxes (express boxes), smart food pickup cabinets, and smart takeaway cabinets, and further enrich offline digital consumption scenarios.
promotes the development of new business forms and new models. Vigorously develop digital commerce and cultivate new business forms and models driven by digital technology and data resource. Encourage intelligent upgrades and business models in the fields of travel, catering, , accommodation, culture, tourism, sports, logistics, housekeeping, etc., promote brand consumption and quality consumption, and cultivate a high-quality digital life service market.
1.1.2 Accelerate the organic integration of online and offline consumption
Promote the online and offline integration of service industries such as culture, tourism, sports, housekeeping, and property, promote the standardization and branding of the service industry, and promote the upgrading of life services to high quality and diversification. Meet new needs for offline life services. promotes the development of contactless transaction service , supports the online and intelligent transportation services, promotes the standardization and coordination of time-sharing rental services, and promotes the delivery of unmanned vehicles into industrial parks and residential communities . Optimize and improve terminal delivery models such as forward warehouse delivery, instant delivery, online ordering and store pickup, and self-service pickup to improve the precise service capabilities of terminal delivery.
1.1.3 Digitally revitalize rural areas to create a sinking market
serves rural revitalization and drives the quality and expansion of the sinking market. coordinates government and social resources, actively carries out "digital business to promote agriculture", strengthens the construction of new infrastructure for rural e-commerce, develops order agriculture, and empowers intelligent industries to upgrade. Support the use of e-commerce big data to promote agricultural supply-side structural reform, accelerate the use of the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence in agricultural production, operation and management, improve the safety traceability supervision system of agricultural products, and promote the development of digital agriculture .
1.2 Social level
1.2.1 Takeaway has gradually become a urgent need for life
Since the takeaway industry broke out in China in 2012, takeaway has gradually become a high-frequency business that is indispensable for people's daily life.
According to data from the National Information Center, the scale of my country's takeaway market reached 1 trillion yuan in 2021, an increase of 50.23% year-on-year, and the CAGR from 2017 to 2021 was 35.09%; the proportion of the national catering industry revenue in 2021 was about 21.4%, an increase of 4.5pct year-on-year. The driving logic of the development of takeaway is clear. It is estimated that my country's takeaway ATU will reach 640 million people in 2025, with an annual takeaway transaction frequency of 57 times per capita, with a takeaway order volume of 36.3 billion orders, corresponding to a daily order volume of about 100 million orders, a GTV of 1.9 trillion yuan, and a 5-year CAGR of 23.4%. can be concluded based on the data that people have a certain dependence on takeaway. With the development of society, the dependence will increase year by year, and users' viscosity on high-quality takeaway platforms will gradually increase.
1.2.2 The value of takeaway under the background of the epidemic is highlighted
In the context of the epidemic in the past two years, the significance and value of takeaway to the economy and even society have become more prominent in the critical period. First of all, takeaway is not only one of the ways for many catering merchants to improve square meter efficiency , but also an important channel for merchants to actively save themselves during dine-in periods. At the same time, the takeaway platform actively introduced relief measures to help medium- and high-risk areas of the epidemic and small and medium-sized merchants with difficulties in operation; secondly, takeaway, as a contactless material distribution system, plays an important social function such as ensuring people's livelihood supply in special periods. For example, Meituan launched the "emergency helper" service in Shanghai during this round of epidemic to help people in need; finally, takeaway provides people with flexible employment channels.
1.2.3 Multidimensional demand for takeaway
Takeaway has entered a new business format for cross-industry, cross-scenario and cross-category development, opening up the era of everything coming home. After the rapid development of takeaway, its business model has been verified by the market. With the deep transparency of takeaway on the supply and demand sides, and the improvement of delivery efficiency, the coverage boundary has also expanded from catering to new retail.
DCCI's "Research Report on Market Value of White-collar Workers in China Media/Industry Deep Takeaway Services" shows that is close to 90% of users have regarded the takeaway platform as a full-category consumption platform . Although the current categories of takeaway platforms are still mainly catering, accounting for about 97%, the number of non-meal orders and delivery demand for desserts, beverages, life supermarkets, fresh fruits and vegetables, flowers and green plants are growing rapidly. At the same time, consumers' dining scenes are becoming more and more abundant, and unconventional dining peaks such as breakfast, afternoon tea, and late-night snacks are showing a growth trend. Consumption habits such as multiple scenarios, multiple categories, and multiple periods are gradually developed to further improve consumers' stickiness to takeout and thus increase consumption frequency.
1.3 Technical level
1.3.1 5G technology development
As of June 2022, 5G base stations have been built and opened nationwide, with an average of more than 12 5G base stations per 10,000 people, and 5G applications cover 40 major categories of the national economy. The domestic 5G network has covered prefecture-level cities, county-level urban areas and 92% of townships and towns across the country, and 5G traffic accounts for 27.2% of mobile traffic. The rapid development and popularization of 5G technology will stimulate new consumer demand. An important feature of 5G is that it can realize "connection between people, people and things, and things", form the interconnection of everything, and integrate it in various aspects such as work and study, leisure and entertainment, social interaction, and industrial production. The gradually enriched consumption patterns of will promote major changes in user experience needs and further stimulate new industries, new business forms and new models.
1.3.2 Three-terminal technology upgrade of rider, user, and merchant
user: Through the unified algorithm engineering framework, the systemic problem of model feature iteration was solved, greatly improving the iteration efficiency of the takeaway algorithm. Optimization focuses mainly on providing a one-stop link from sample generation - feature production - feature computing to solve the problem of fast iteration of features. has improved user experience, cultivated user minds, and accumulated user number through technology upgrades. In 2021, the number of Meituan transaction users reached 690 million (yoy+35%) , of which 440 million takeaway users (yoy+13%) were included. The increase in the number of new users in 21 years reached 28%.
Merchant: The scale effect of the takeaway platform on the three ends will form a "positive feedback" closed loop. In the bilateral network of traditional e-commerce (no self-fulfilling facilities), the effectiveness of users and merchants using takeaway platforms increases with the increase in the number of the other side. The takeaway system internalizes the fulfillment system, and the huge and efficient rider network can also interact with the users and merchants, which prompts the scale advantages of the three ends to form a mutually strengthened closed loop and consolidate the competitive barriers of the platform.
rider: By optimizing the scheduling algorithm, we find the optimal solution for "smooth + ample time limit", optimize each rider's delivery distance, reduce capacity consumption, and achieve dual optimization of costs and time. Through the intelligent regional planning of and intelligent shift scheduling, optimize the average driving distance and shift scheduling plan for riders to achieve "efficient running" capacity management. By iterating a series of technical measures, the peak per capita single-effect peak of Meituan riders has increased from 30 orders per person in 2015 to 50 orders per person in 2021.
1.3.3 Layout unmanned transportation equipment
Meituan continues to lay out Robotics-related tracks such as automatic delivery vehicles, drones, intelligent customer service robots, and smart micro warehouses through self-development. Public information shows that as of March 2022, Meituan drone has implemented regular takeaway delivery services in 8 communities and 1 business district in Shenzhen, covering more than 8,000 households, and delivering more than 3.5w+ orders to real users.
Meituan drone not only successfully flew in Shenzhen in 2021, but also completed the first order delivery task for real users, and distributed emergency materials to residents of the Nanshan District quarantine area in Shenzhen during the epidemic prevention and control, becoming a "air channel" for urban material transportation during the epidemic.
In addition, Meituan automatic delivery vehicle has also made landmark progress in the research and development of core products. Based on Meituan’s delivery business scenario needs, in April 2021, the new generation of automatic delivery car magic bag 20 independently developed was released. This is a low-speed instant delivery solution launched by Meituan’s automatic delivery for outdoor scenarios, marking that Meituan’s automatic delivery car has initially achieved mass production capabilities and its development has entered a new stage. As these new technologies gradually mature, more new scenarios, new experiences and new values will be created one by one.
2. User analysis
2.1 User scale analysis
According to iResearch Qianfan statistics, the number of active people in Meituan Takeout from January 2020 to May 2022 was more than 42.81 million, the number of active people was more than penetration rate of was more than 4.19%, the number of active people industry penetration rate was more than 45%, and the number of active people in the field of active people was more than 10.65%, and the parameters were generally in a stable state of rising.
2.2 User portrait analysis
The ratio of men and women to Meituan takeaway users is quite different, with a high proportion of female users, reaching 66.01%. The age distribution of users is mainly under 40 years old, of which 22.57% are under 24 years old, 54.7% are aged 24-35 years old, and 17.82% are aged Meituan takeaway user group is more younger, and the majority of the user group is office workers .
Meituan Takeout is an O2O platform. Users use the platform to consume to solve some urgent needs. Therefore, Meituan Takeout users have a strong desire to consume. Judging from the consumption level of Meituan Takeout, the proportion of medium and medium-high consumers is the highest, accounting for 53.91%, and the proportion of low consumers is the lowest, accounting for 9.72%. Users who can launch Meituan Takeout have higher consumption capacity and hope to purchase higher quality and more diverse products from the platform .
2.3 User demand analysis
According to KANO demand model , user needs are mainly divided into three levels, including essential needs, expected needs, and charm needs.
- Must-have requirements is a product's need to solve users' basic problems; expectation needs refer to the services that users expect, which belong to the core competitiveness that is different from other products; charm needs refer to the needs that exceed users' expectations, which can hit users' pain points and further improve users' dependence on products. As an O2O takeaway APP, Meituan Takeaway must have . is online ordering, online payment, timely delivery and other aspects.
- Expected needs is reflected in classification and screening, recommendations based on preferences, convenient and fast payment, fast delivery speed, high product quality, and post-meal evaluation.
- Charming needs is reflected in the variety of categories, accurate recommendations, delivery status to view, full discount and order-making artifacts, product bonuses, evaluation rewards, etc.
Meituan Takeout slogan always maintains the "Meituan Takeout, everything is delivered quickly."
Through Maslow's demand theory analysis, for Meituan users, the need to quickly obtain food delivery such as catering and daily necessities is a high-frequency urgent need, located at the foundation of the Maslow pyramid .
Meituan penetrates from the bottom layer, expanding from high-frequency and high penetration to solving daily physiological needs such as food and clothing and convenience of life to diversified needs such as high-quality diet, same-city retail, near-field e-commerce and near-field services, such as relatively low-frequency and low penetration. is located at the waist of Maslow Pyramid .
With the advent of the Web3.0 era, the platform ecosystem is isolated and vague, and all content is decentralized, "readable, writeable, and holdable". More personalized needs of Meituan takeaway users will gradually be reflected, and is located at the top of the Maslow pyramid .
III. Competitive Product Analysis
3.1 Development History of the Domestic Takeaway Industry
my country's takeaway industry was sprouted in 2000, and at first it mainly focused on telephone ordering. In 2009, Ele.me was founded, Meituan Takeout was launched in 2013, and in 2014, Baidu Takeout was launched, capital was rushed in, and a wave of burning money and subsidies were set off among various platforms to seize users, and the industry expanded rapidly. After the subsidy war in 2016, capital ebbed, industry competition intensified and rapid integration, and the tail platform gradually cleared out, and the market formed a three-legged situation of Ele.me, Meituan Takeout and Baidu Takeout. In 2017, Ele.me acquired Baidu Takeaway, in April 2018, Alibaba acquired Ele.me with reputation in October, to create the Alibaba local life service series. At the same time, Baidu Takeaway was renamed Ele.me Star Selection, and its market share was further concentrated in Meituan and Ele.me, forming a duopoly monopoly pattern, and Meituan's market share has steadily increased.
Meituan Takeout and Ele.me are takeout O2O platforms and are direct competitors. According to Trust data, Meituan and Ele.me (including Ele.me Star Selection) have a total market share of more than 90% in 2020Q2. The remaining market is mainly divided by self-built takeout platforms such as Zhaiqiu Express and Maile Delivery . Therefore, this report only conducts competitive product analysis on Ele.me, and conducts research and interpretation on two aspects: product development history and business capabilities.
3.2 Meituan Takeout VS Ele.me: Development History
Meituan:
- Meituan.com was founded on May 6, 2011.
- In July 2010, I received a Sequoia Capital A round investment of US$12 million.
- In July 2011, it completed a US$50 million round of financing, led by Alibaba , followed by Northern Lights, Wadden International and Sequoia Capital.
- In November 2013, the takeaway business was started, and the business center was moved from "Home to Home" to "Home to Home".
- In May 2014, the leading investment institution was Pan Atlantic Capital.
- In October 2015, Meituan and Dianping officially announced the merger. Meituan received strong traffic and offline merchants' support, and at the same time opened a self-built delivery network and order distribution system.
- In November 2015, the financing scale was about US$3 billion, and Tencent led the investment of US$1 billion.
- September 20, 2018 Meituan was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
- In October 2021, the company's strategy changed from the "Food+Platform" strategy to "retail + technology".
Ele.me:
- The local life platform founded in 2008 is mainly engaged in online takeaway, new retail, instant delivery and catering supply chain businesses.
- In 2011, it received millions of US dollars in Series A investment from Jinshajiang Venture Capital . Since then, it has been favored by the capital market. In 2013, it completed its B and C financing in the branch.
- In May 2014, Dianping received a US$80 million investment;
- On August 28, 2015, it completed a US$300 million F round financing, led by CITIC Industrial Fund and Hualian Co., Ltd. , and new investors such as Chinese Cultural Industry Fund and Gefei Assets, as well as former investors such as Tencent, JD.com , and Sequoia Capital.
- In 2015, it received a strategic investment from Didi Chuxing , and received a US$500 million investment from Alibaba in the same year.The emergence of
Takeaway has changed people's eating habits, no longer restricted by time and place, and can eat delicious food from all over the world anytime and anywhere. What changes has the three years of the epidemic caused to the food delivery industry? The author of this article will take Meituan Takeout as an example to analyze this and let’s take a look.
author is currently Hong Kong Polytechnic University graduate students are studying. Based on their love for Internet products, through 30+ research reports, we sorted out the key path of how Meituan Takeout can be the leading industry, and at the same time comprehensively sorted out and analyzed the products. Through this article, you can recognize different Meituan Takeout, including product development history, competitive product comparison, industry expectations and development directions under the background of the epidemic, etc. Everyone is welcome to discuss and correct me in the comment section.
1. Industry analysis
1.1 Policy level
According to the national "14th Five-Year Plan" development plan, comprehensively promotes consumption, accelerates the organic integration of online and offline consumption, and digitally revitalizes rural areas to create a sinking market and other work is the key to the future national development. This series of plans and measures are favorable policies for O2O takeaway platforms such as Meituan .
comprehensively promotes consumption, enhances the fundamental role of consumption in economic development, connects all links of production, distribution, circulation and consumption, and forms a virtuous cycle of the national economy. It is the cornerstone of the growth and development of O2O platforms such as Meituan. Accelerating the organic integration of online and offline consumption and promoting the platformization of various offline consumption industries will lead to diversified business chains, which will be conducive to industry innovation, and realize the upgrading of consumption models and organic combination of cross-fields. It is an opportunity for the growth and development of O2O platforms such as Meituan.
Sincerely develop rural areas, create a sinking market, and promote rural informatization is a key link in improving the overall informatization level of the country. The popularization of informatization in counties and villages is conducive to creating a sinking market and expanding the growth space of the industry. It is a hotbed for O2O platforms such as Meituan to achieve national popularity.
1.1.1 Comprehensively promote consumption
to create a new consumption scenario for digital life . Actively develop smart blocks and smart business districts, promote the construction of smart sports venues, encourage innovation and intelligent upgrades in business models in the fields of catering takeaway and shared travel, strengthen the construction of service terminals such as smart envelope boxes (express boxes), smart food pickup cabinets, and smart takeaway cabinets, and further enrich offline digital consumption scenarios.
promotes the development of new business forms and new models. Vigorously develop digital commerce and cultivate new business forms and models driven by digital technology and data resource. Encourage intelligent upgrades and business models in the fields of travel, catering, , accommodation, culture, tourism, sports, logistics, housekeeping, etc., promote brand consumption and quality consumption, and cultivate a high-quality digital life service market.
1.1.2 Accelerate the organic integration of online and offline consumption
Promote the online and offline integration of service industries such as culture, tourism, sports, housekeeping, and property, promote the standardization and branding of the service industry, and promote the upgrading of life services to high quality and diversification. Meet new needs for offline life services. promotes the development of contactless transaction service , supports the online and intelligent transportation services, promotes the standardization and coordination of time-sharing rental services, and promotes the delivery of unmanned vehicles into industrial parks and residential communities . Optimize and improve terminal delivery models such as forward warehouse delivery, instant delivery, online ordering and store pickup, and self-service pickup to improve the precise service capabilities of terminal delivery.
1.1.3 Digitally revitalize rural areas to create a sinking market
serves rural revitalization and drives the quality and expansion of the sinking market. coordinates government and social resources, actively carries out "digital business to promote agriculture", strengthens the construction of new infrastructure for rural e-commerce, develops order agriculture, and empowers intelligent industries to upgrade. Support the use of e-commerce big data to promote agricultural supply-side structural reform, accelerate the use of the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence in agricultural production, operation and management, improve the safety traceability supervision system of agricultural products, and promote the development of digital agriculture .
1.2 Social level
1.2.1 Takeaway has gradually become a urgent need for life
Since the takeaway industry broke out in China in 2012, takeaway has gradually become a high-frequency business that is indispensable for people's daily life.
According to data from the National Information Center, the scale of my country's takeaway market reached 1 trillion yuan in 2021, an increase of 50.23% year-on-year, and the CAGR from 2017 to 2021 was 35.09%; the proportion of the national catering industry revenue in 2021 was about 21.4%, an increase of 4.5pct year-on-year. The driving logic of the development of takeaway is clear. It is estimated that my country's takeaway ATU will reach 640 million people in 2025, with an annual takeaway transaction frequency of 57 times per capita, with a takeaway order volume of 36.3 billion orders, corresponding to a daily order volume of about 100 million orders, a GTV of 1.9 trillion yuan, and a 5-year CAGR of 23.4%. can be concluded based on the data that people have a certain dependence on takeaway. With the development of society, the dependence will increase year by year, and users' viscosity on high-quality takeaway platforms will gradually increase.
1.2.2 The value of takeaway under the background of the epidemic is highlighted
In the context of the epidemic in the past two years, the significance and value of takeaway to the economy and even society have become more prominent in the critical period. First of all, takeaway is not only one of the ways for many catering merchants to improve square meter efficiency , but also an important channel for merchants to actively save themselves during dine-in periods. At the same time, the takeaway platform actively introduced relief measures to help medium- and high-risk areas of the epidemic and small and medium-sized merchants with difficulties in operation; secondly, takeaway, as a contactless material distribution system, plays an important social function such as ensuring people's livelihood supply in special periods. For example, Meituan launched the "emergency helper" service in Shanghai during this round of epidemic to help people in need; finally, takeaway provides people with flexible employment channels.
1.2.3 Multidimensional demand for takeaway
Takeaway has entered a new business format for cross-industry, cross-scenario and cross-category development, opening up the era of everything coming home. After the rapid development of takeaway, its business model has been verified by the market. With the deep transparency of takeaway on the supply and demand sides, and the improvement of delivery efficiency, the coverage boundary has also expanded from catering to new retail.
DCCI's "Research Report on Market Value of White-collar Workers in China Media/Industry Deep Takeaway Services" shows that is close to 90% of users have regarded the takeaway platform as a full-category consumption platform . Although the current categories of takeaway platforms are still mainly catering, accounting for about 97%, the number of non-meal orders and delivery demand for desserts, beverages, life supermarkets, fresh fruits and vegetables, flowers and green plants are growing rapidly. At the same time, consumers' dining scenes are becoming more and more abundant, and unconventional dining peaks such as breakfast, afternoon tea, and late-night snacks are showing a growth trend. Consumption habits such as multiple scenarios, multiple categories, and multiple periods are gradually developed to further improve consumers' stickiness to takeout and thus increase consumption frequency.
1.3 Technical level
1.3.1 5G technology development
As of June 2022, 5G base stations have been built and opened nationwide, with an average of more than 12 5G base stations per 10,000 people, and 5G applications cover 40 major categories of the national economy. The domestic 5G network has covered prefecture-level cities, county-level urban areas and 92% of townships and towns across the country, and 5G traffic accounts for 27.2% of mobile traffic. The rapid development and popularization of 5G technology will stimulate new consumer demand. An important feature of 5G is that it can realize "connection between people, people and things, and things", form the interconnection of everything, and integrate it in various aspects such as work and study, leisure and entertainment, social interaction, and industrial production. The gradually enriched consumption patterns of will promote major changes in user experience needs and further stimulate new industries, new business forms and new models.
1.3.2 Three-terminal technology upgrade of rider, user, and merchant
user: Through the unified algorithm engineering framework, the systemic problem of model feature iteration was solved, greatly improving the iteration efficiency of the takeaway algorithm. Optimization focuses mainly on providing a one-stop link from sample generation - feature production - feature computing to solve the problem of fast iteration of features. has improved user experience, cultivated user minds, and accumulated user number through technology upgrades. In 2021, the number of Meituan transaction users reached 690 million (yoy+35%) , of which 440 million takeaway users (yoy+13%) were included. The increase in the number of new users in 21 years reached 28%.
Merchant: The scale effect of the takeaway platform on the three ends will form a "positive feedback" closed loop. In the bilateral network of traditional e-commerce (no self-fulfilling facilities), the effectiveness of users and merchants using takeaway platforms increases with the increase in the number of the other side. The takeaway system internalizes the fulfillment system, and the huge and efficient rider network can also interact with the users and merchants, which prompts the scale advantages of the three ends to form a mutually strengthened closed loop and consolidate the competitive barriers of the platform.
rider: By optimizing the scheduling algorithm, we find the optimal solution for "smooth + ample time limit", optimize each rider's delivery distance, reduce capacity consumption, and achieve dual optimization of costs and time. Through the intelligent regional planning of and intelligent shift scheduling, optimize the average driving distance and shift scheduling plan for riders to achieve "efficient running" capacity management. By iterating a series of technical measures, the peak per capita single-effect peak of Meituan riders has increased from 30 orders per person in 2015 to 50 orders per person in 2021.
1.3.3 Layout unmanned transportation equipment
Meituan continues to lay out Robotics-related tracks such as automatic delivery vehicles, drones, intelligent customer service robots, and smart micro warehouses through self-development. Public information shows that as of March 2022, Meituan drone has implemented regular takeaway delivery services in 8 communities and 1 business district in Shenzhen, covering more than 8,000 households, and delivering more than 3.5w+ orders to real users.
Meituan drone not only successfully flew in Shenzhen in 2021, but also completed the first order delivery task for real users, and distributed emergency materials to residents of the Nanshan District quarantine area in Shenzhen during the epidemic prevention and control, becoming a "air channel" for urban material transportation during the epidemic.
In addition, Meituan automatic delivery vehicle has also made landmark progress in the research and development of core products. Based on Meituan’s delivery business scenario needs, in April 2021, the new generation of automatic delivery car magic bag 20 independently developed was released. This is a low-speed instant delivery solution launched by Meituan’s automatic delivery for outdoor scenarios, marking that Meituan’s automatic delivery car has initially achieved mass production capabilities and its development has entered a new stage. As these new technologies gradually mature, more new scenarios, new experiences and new values will be created one by one.
2. User analysis
2.1 User scale analysis
According to iResearch Qianfan statistics, the number of active people in Meituan Takeout from January 2020 to May 2022 was more than 42.81 million, the number of active people was more than penetration rate of was more than 4.19%, the number of active people industry penetration rate was more than 45%, and the number of active people in the field of active people was more than 10.65%, and the parameters were generally in a stable state of rising.
2.2 User portrait analysis
The ratio of men and women to Meituan takeaway users is quite different, with a high proportion of female users, reaching 66.01%. The age distribution of users is mainly under 40 years old, of which 22.57% are under 24 years old, 54.7% are aged 24-35 years old, and 17.82% are aged Meituan takeaway user group is more younger, and the majority of the user group is office workers .
Meituan Takeout is an O2O platform. Users use the platform to consume to solve some urgent needs. Therefore, Meituan Takeout users have a strong desire to consume. Judging from the consumption level of Meituan Takeout, the proportion of medium and medium-high consumers is the highest, accounting for 53.91%, and the proportion of low consumers is the lowest, accounting for 9.72%. Users who can launch Meituan Takeout have higher consumption capacity and hope to purchase higher quality and more diverse products from the platform .
2.3 User demand analysis
According to KANO demand model , user needs are mainly divided into three levels, including essential needs, expected needs, and charm needs.
- Must-have requirements is a product's need to solve users' basic problems; expectation needs refer to the services that users expect, which belong to the core competitiveness that is different from other products; charm needs refer to the needs that exceed users' expectations, which can hit users' pain points and further improve users' dependence on products. As an O2O takeaway APP, Meituan Takeaway must have . is online ordering, online payment, timely delivery and other aspects.
- Expected needs is reflected in classification and screening, recommendations based on preferences, convenient and fast payment, fast delivery speed, high product quality, and post-meal evaluation.
- Charming needs is reflected in the variety of categories, accurate recommendations, delivery status to view, full discount and order-making artifacts, product bonuses, evaluation rewards, etc.
Meituan Takeout slogan always maintains the "Meituan Takeout, everything is delivered quickly."
Through Maslow's demand theory analysis, for Meituan users, the need to quickly obtain food delivery such as catering and daily necessities is a high-frequency urgent need, located at the foundation of the Maslow pyramid .
Meituan penetrates from the bottom layer, expanding from high-frequency and high penetration to solving daily physiological needs such as food and clothing and convenience of life to diversified needs such as high-quality diet, same-city retail, near-field e-commerce and near-field services, such as relatively low-frequency and low penetration. is located at the waist of Maslow Pyramid .
With the advent of the Web3.0 era, the platform ecosystem is isolated and vague, and all content is decentralized, "readable, writeable, and holdable". More personalized needs of Meituan takeaway users will gradually be reflected, and is located at the top of the Maslow pyramid .
III. Competitive Product Analysis
3.1 Development History of the Domestic Takeaway Industry
my country's takeaway industry was sprouted in 2000, and at first it mainly focused on telephone ordering. In 2009, Ele.me was founded, Meituan Takeout was launched in 2013, and in 2014, Baidu Takeout was launched, capital was rushed in, and a wave of burning money and subsidies were set off among various platforms to seize users, and the industry expanded rapidly. After the subsidy war in 2016, capital ebbed, industry competition intensified and rapid integration, and the tail platform gradually cleared out, and the market formed a three-legged situation of Ele.me, Meituan Takeout and Baidu Takeout. In 2017, Ele.me acquired Baidu Takeaway, in April 2018, Alibaba acquired Ele.me with reputation in October, to create the Alibaba local life service series. At the same time, Baidu Takeaway was renamed Ele.me Star Selection, and its market share was further concentrated in Meituan and Ele.me, forming a duopoly monopoly pattern, and Meituan's market share has steadily increased.
Meituan Takeout and Ele.me are takeout O2O platforms and are direct competitors. According to Trust data, Meituan and Ele.me (including Ele.me Star Selection) have a total market share of more than 90% in 2020Q2. The remaining market is mainly divided by self-built takeout platforms such as Zhaiqiu Express and Maile Delivery . Therefore, this report only conducts competitive product analysis on Ele.me, and conducts research and interpretation on two aspects: product development history and business capabilities.
3.2 Meituan Takeout VS Ele.me: Development History
Meituan:
- Meituan.com was founded on May 6, 2011.
- In July 2010, I received a Sequoia Capital A round investment of US$12 million.
- In July 2011, it completed a US$50 million round of financing, led by Alibaba , followed by Northern Lights, Wadden International and Sequoia Capital.
- In November 2013, the takeaway business was started, and the business center was moved from "Home to Home" to "Home to Home".
- In May 2014, the leading investment institution was Pan Atlantic Capital.
- In October 2015, Meituan and Dianping officially announced the merger. Meituan received strong traffic and offline merchants' support, and at the same time opened a self-built delivery network and order distribution system.
- In November 2015, the financing scale was about US$3 billion, and Tencent led the investment of US$1 billion.
- September 20, 2018 Meituan was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
- In October 2021, the company's strategy changed from the "Food+Platform" strategy to "retail + technology".
Ele.me:
- The local life platform founded in 2008 is mainly engaged in online takeaway, new retail, instant delivery and catering supply chain businesses.
- In 2011, it received millions of US dollars in Series A investment from Jinshajiang Venture Capital . Since then, it has been favored by the capital market. In 2013, it completed its B and C financing in the branch.
- In May 2014, Dianping received a US$80 million investment;
- On August 28, 2015, it completed a US$300 million F round financing, led by CITIC Industrial Fund and Hualian Co., Ltd. , and new investors such as Chinese Cultural Industry Fund and Gefei Assets, as well as former investors such as Tencent, JD.com , and Sequoia Capital.
- In 2015, it received a strategic investment from Didi Chuxing , and received a US$500 million investment from Alibaba in the same year.
- On August 24, 2017, Ele.me acquired Baidu Takeaway for US$800 million.
- On April 2, 2018, Alibaba Group , Ant Financial Group and Ele.me jointly announced that Alibaba has signed an acquisition agreement and will jointly complete the full acquisition of Ele.me with Ant Financial for US$9.5 billion.
- On June 17, 2020, Ele.me has completed 100% cloud access, and all business systems, database facilities, etc. have been moved to Alibaba Cloud . Support 100 million people to order orders online at the same time.
3.2.1 Establishment time
Meituan started from group buying. In 2012, Meituan became the group buying company with the largest market share in group buying. Relying on the previous experience in group buying business and the accumulation of merchants, Meituan Takeout was officially established in 2013, and Ele.me was established in 2008 and vertically deepened its takeout market . Meituan Takeout started about 5 years later than Ele.me.
3.2.2 Investment and financing comparison
In 2014, Ele.me won a total of about .11 billion through the ABC round and Dianping strategic investment, and Meituan invested .362 billion through the ABC round. It can be seen that the capital market favors Meituan more, and deep capital has also become the greatest confidence for Meituan Takeout in the market competition with Ele.me. In 2014, Meituan's market share reached 27.61%, while Ele.me's market share was only 30.58%. The gap between the two market share continues to narrow.
3.2.3 Resource integration comparison
In 2015, Meituan and Dianping merged , and Meituan received strong traffic and offline merchants' support. In 2016, Meituan’s takeaway market share had become the number one in the market, and the original group buying team was fully adjusted to the takeaway business line. In 2017, Ele.me merged Baidu Takeout , but Ele.me's market share still declined to 28.1%, and Meituan rose to 57.6%. Meituan's market share reached more than 65% in Q2 2019, and Meituan Takeout continued to widen the gap with Ele.me, and its market share steadily increased.3.3 Meituan Takeout VS Ele.me: Business comparison
3.3.1 Rider delivery comparison
From the perspective of rider composition , Meituan Takeout delivery riders are composed of riders hired by the company. Ele.me’s delivery service is outsourced by dian and Hummingbird. Most of the riders belong to their riders, and the platform and riders are independent of each other and are in the upstream and downstream relationship of the business.
In terms of delivery activity, , Meituan riders are more active overall. From May 2020 to March 2022, Meituan crowdsourcing and Meituan riders MAU combined were between 4.5-5.5 million people, and Hummingbird crowdsourcing MAU was between 1 million-1.5 million people. According to the 2020Q1 data, the active gap between Meituan riders and Ele.me riders is more obvious between 12-18 points.
From the perspective of delivery efficiency , the Meituan rider team performed better than Ele.me in terms of efficiency indicators such as per capita daily order volume and delivery time. Meituan achieved a market share of 2 times that of Ele.me with a rider count of 1.5 times.
3.3.2 Merchant operations compare
From the merchant entry requirements, Meituan requires merchants to have offline physical stores, business licenses that comply with national laws, and business projects supported by Meituan takeaway. First pass online review and sign the contract, and then the business manager visits to prepare for business. The platform will also provide merchants with help from store beautification, food supply, legal consultation, financial lending, etc. The application requirements and procedures for merchants at Ele.me are similar to those of Meituan, but highlight the "fastest two-hour" store opening efficiency, takeaway commission discounts, and 7-day traffic-weighted benefits.
From the perspective of attracting merchants, was the strong ground promotion ability developed by Meituan in early 2013, and the number of cities and merchants achieved exponential growth. In 2015, Meituan and Dianping's "strong alliance" not only absorbed Dianping's merchant resources, but also opened up the "finding restaurants, eating in the store, and delivering food" chain, achieving initial coverage of the entire catering scene, and the number of merchants increased nearly twice compared with 2014.
Ele.me has gained the first-mover advantage due to its early establishment. In the early stage, it attracted a certain number of merchants to settle in through platform advantages and ground promotion. From 2013 to 2016, it mainly subsidized merchants through deduction coupons and other methods to expand merchant resources. In 2017, Ele.me acquired Baidu Takeaway and absorbed the merchant resources accumulated by Baidu Takeaway.
From the perspective of helping merchants under the background of the epidemic, both Meituan and Ele.me have issued relevant policies to help merchants affected by the epidemic. Through comparison, it was found that Meituan’s discount targets and regions are larger, Ele.me’s discount threshold is lower and the discount intensity is greater.
3.3.3 User introduction compare
From the user traffic entrance, Meituan Takeaway uses Tencent’s “social + payment” ecosystem to superimpose triple high-frequency scenarios (social + payment, local life, in-store reviews), expanding the traffic entrance under interconnection. Against the backdrop of 21 years of interconnection, Meituan and Kuaishou have been working together to lay out short video social groups and continue to explore the traffic strategy. Ele.me mainly expands traffic users for Ele.me through two high-frequency scenarios: payment only + local life.
According to QuestMobile, in June 2020, Meituan WeChat mini program contributed 66% of active users to Meituan Takeout App, and Alipay mini program contributed only 43% of active users to Ele.me APP.
From the user usage data, , Meituan Takeout MAU (monthly active users) in 2021 basically maintained around 4 times that of Ele.me. Meituan and Meituan Takeout APP have better performance than Ele.me in terms of user stickiness characteristics (average daily time for a single user, and the proportion of daily active users to monthly active users). This is mainly due to the interaction between Meituan's local life super platform and the coordination of traffic has strengthened users' usage habits.
Compared with Ele.me and Alipay (consuming some local life functions) and Taobao (e-commerce traffic diversion), Meituan Takeout relies on the Meituan APP ecosystem to make multiple local life scenarios (in-store/new retail/cab/bike), and multi-party collaboration is more focused on the local life ecosystem.
3.3.4 Strategic layout comparison
In October 2021, Meituan adjusted the strategic "Food+Platform" to "retail + technology" , and established a "retail group" to integrate preferred, Kuailu, grocery shopping and other businesses. Meituan Takeout is an important part of Meituan's local life system. This strategy adjustment is more in line with users' needs in all aspects of "food+clothing, housing and transportation", and brings more increments to Meituan Takeout for users and merchants. At the same time, Meituan has deployed hard technology fields such as intelligent logistics, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing, which plays a very important potential role in realizing the transformation of unmanned delivery and platform web3.0 in the future.
In July 2021, Alibaba announced that Fliggy , Gaode , and Ele.me formed the "Flying Gao" life service sector , and Ele.me then launched an all-round supermarket. From this, it can be seen that Ele.me is also focusing on the layout of new retail business and hopes to form a linkage through catering takeaway and local life services.
4. Product Analysis
4.1 Product Overview
Meituan Takeout is an online food ordering platform under Meituan. It was officially launched in November 2013. It also supports two major terminal platforms: iOS and Android. The main functions are online ordering and provide food delivery services. Later, the business of running errands, self-pickup, flash purchases and other services were added. Meituan Takeout Slogan is "Meituan Takeout, everything is delivered quickly."
Meituan takeout category includes nearby food, fruits, vegetables, supermarkets, flowers, cakes, etc., whether it is brunch and dinner, afternoon tea, late-night snacks, or Chinese, Western food, home-cooked dishes, snacks, fast food, seafood, hot pot, Sichuan cuisine, cakes, barbecue, fruits, beverages, desserts, etc.
4.2 Product iteration analysis
4.2.1 Key version sorting
- 1.0.0 version (2013/11/20) – the app is online.
- 1.4.8 version (2014/06/07) – Optimize the evaluation and display of restaurants and delivery.
- 1.5.0 version (2014/07/12) – Online order cancellation and timeout compensation function.
- 2.0.0 version (2014/08/07) – Online payment function is launched.
- 3.4.1 version (2015/05/05) – Smart address recommendation function is launched.
- 3.5.3 version (2015/06/25) – Real-time delivery status, urge orders and another order function.
- 3.8.0 version (2015/10/08) – Online meal reservations, vouchers, and online customer service functions.
- 4.0.0 version (2015/11/17) – Replace the brand new logo and kangaroo image.
- 4.2.0 version (2016/02/02) – Optimize search, filtering and other functions.
- 4.5.0 version (2016/06/02) – Red envelope sharing function is launched.
- 5.0.0 version (2016/08/30) – Supports WeChat binding, launches WeChat headlines, stealing red envelopes and other functions.
- 5.8.0 version (2017/07/06) – Online home page global shopping cart function .
- 5.9.0 version (2017/08/01) – The number privacy protection function is launched.
- 5.10.0 version (2017/8/30) – Online pick-up service.
- 6.6.5 version (2018/06/07) – Online Meituan flash sale page.
- 6.8.0 version (2018/08/06) – Red envelope package upgrade, can be redeemed for large-scale merchant red envelopes.
- 7.8.0 version (2019/03/25) – Pin-sharing and access mini program
- 7.30.0 version (2020/02/20) – Online contactless and secure delivery
- 7.71.0 version (2021/11/16) – Replace the new logo
- 7.76.0 version (2022/01/24) – The search function is newly upgraded.
- 7.77.0 version (2022/02/21) – Launching inflatable takeaway coupons
4.2.2 Product launch, improve the basic functions
Before July 2015, V1.0.0-V3.5.3 version is the launch stage of Meituan Takeaway app. Meituan extends to develop the exploration process of takeaway from group purchase. The main goal of this stage of is to verify user needs and polish user experience . Most of the functions online at this stage are tool-oriented, such as optimizing restaurants, delivery evaluation and display, order cancellation and timeout compensation functions, online payment function, smart address recommendation function, real-time delivery status, order urge, another order function, meal reservation, voucher, online customer service function. Most of them are basic functions to facilitate users to order online.
4.2.3 Build an operation tool to further expand the user scale
From October 2015 to August 2018, the version from V3.8.0 to V6.8.0 is the rapid growth period of Meituan Takeaway app, and expanding user scale and increasing market share have become the focus of product iteration. focuses on adding some operating tools to build at this stage, such as red envelope sharing function, vouchers, and Tencent ecosystem inlay. Combined with WeChat's powerful social genes, reduce operating costs through users' active recruitment of new products, and achieve the expansion of the speed of virus transmission.
In October 2015, Meituan APP Meituan and Dianping officially announced the merger. Meituan received strong traffic and offline merchants' support, and at the same time opened the self-built delivery network and order distribution system. In November of the same year, it received a US$1 billion lead investment from Tencent, with a total financing scale of approximately US$3 billion. After sufficient ammunition, it accelerated its operational pace. At this stage, Meituan Takeout has obvious advantages in traffic channels. In addition to Meituan and Dianping, Tencent has opened two S-level traffic portals: WeChat and QQ. The popularity of Meituan Takeout APP is constantly expanding, and the number of users has achieved explosive growth at this stage. In 2016, Meituan Takeout market share exceeded Ele.me and became the first in the industry.
4.2.4 Continuously optimize products, expand business through multiple channels, and continuously enrich takeaway scenarios
From August 2018 to the present, Meituan Takeaway APP has launched the V7.0 major version, and this stage is the maturity of Meituan Takeaway APP. continuously optimizes basic functions at the product level, such as optimizing search functions, increasing privacy management functions, supporting online delivery of harvest addresses to riders, etc., to continue to polish the user experience. At the same time, through some new functions, such as writing reviews and posting pictures for orders, you can get redemption of gold beans, red envelopes for takeout after college students complete certification, and the "summon merchant" function to improve user activity and user stickiness. The core work of
at this stage is to continuously enrich takeaway scenarios, meet the diverse needs of users, continuously expand business channels, and open up the era of "everything comes home". As of Q2 2020, Meituan takeaway market share reached 68.2%, and this value is constantly increasing.
4.3 Product structure analysis
For the convenience of analysis, by re-sorting the product structure of Meituan Takeout APP according to users, scenarios, needs and functions, you will get the following table:
When users use Meituan app, there will be three main scenarios. These scenarios will be combined with specific analysis of the product layout and functions:
- The process of users browsing and selecting products before consumption.
- The process of users confirming order information, preferential use, and payment methods during the payment process.
- users track and modify order information and evaluate repurchase orders after consumption.
4.3.1 Before consumption
Before consumption, the product function of Meituan app is mainly used to guide users to clarify their needs, select suitable products, and then place orders for products.
For users with no clear purchase needs , Meituan app displays all Meituan categories in the homepage-product category. Users can quickly understand all product categories provided by the platform through this column. At the same time, the various modules on the homepage will display products to users, such as "Internet celebrity store list, today's hot products, and people nearby are eating", which directly solves the pain points of users' demand for not knowing what to buy. In addition, when users browse home page and merchant details page, home page, store banner pictures, product details pictures, etc. further attract users to clarify their needs and guide users to place orders.
For users with clear purchase targets , Meituan app has set up a search bar at the top of the homepage. Users can directly locate this function to quickly search for products. At the same time, a product category is set up at the bottom of the search bar on the home page. All types of this product of Meituan app are displayed in this area. For users who have a clear need to purchase categories, they can quickly lock in and enter the target area to purchase products. In addition, when entering the target purchasing area, you can filter and filter prices, sales volume, discounts, and delivery time through the filtering function, so as to quickly select products that meet the conditions.
For users with discount needs, Meituan app specially sets this column for membership in the product structure, so that users can quickly obtain preferential rights and information of platform members. At the same time, a discount recommendation module has been set up in the homepage-merchant recommendation, such as "50% off for milk tea, reduced distribution as low as 0 yuan, 30% off for food, Monday coffee discount", etc. Users with discount needs can be attracted as soon as possible when opening the APP to browse the homepage, improving merchant screening efficiency and promoting order rate.
4.3.2 In payment
payment stage, the main function of Meituan app is to provide order information confirmation functions, fast and diverse payment forms, discount matching options, etc., to guide users to complete order settlement, ensure the correctness of orders, and reduce the risk of refunds.After the user adds the required products to the shopping cart, before placing an order, on the one hand, they may need to increase or decrease the quantity and type of products, and on the other hand, they will pay more attention to some discounts or free shipping activities. To this end, the platform has set up functions such as deletion of product quantity, order collection, red envelope display, and low-price exchange on the shopping cart interface, and meets various needs.
Given that different users are familiar with different payment methods, Meituan Takeout has launched a diversified payment channel with WeChat, Alipay and many banks. Especially with the support of credit card payment, users can obtain greater discounts and exemptions.
For users who are afraid of order information errors, Meituan app sets up an order confirmation and settlement page. Before payment, the user conducts a secondary verification of the purchased goods through a clearly clear settlement page to determine the delivery time, delivery address, delivery fee, payment amount, etc.
For users with discount matching needs , Meituan app sets Meituan red envelopes, merchant vouchers, discount rules, etc. in the settlement page, so that users who need it can DIY the discount, and at the same time, they can see the discount details and understand the price composition more.
For users with special needs such as tableware, invoices, privacy, etc., Meituan app sets tableware quantity, invoices, number protection, etc. on the settlement page. Users can meet their personal needs through clicking and selecting, and at the same time communicate with merchants other personalized needs of orders through notes.
4.3.3 Post-consumption
Post-consumption stage, the main function of Meituan app is to track and modify order status, after-sales, reviews and quick repurchase of orders.
For users' needs to track, modify and return orders after placing an order, , Meituan Takeaway app provides users with relevant functions to track orders in the "Add to receive" module, which facilitates users to check whether the order is delivered, view delivery information, view delivery path, etc. At the same time, the order details provide modules such as modifying the delivery address, consignee information, and delivery time. In addition, for the refund requirement, a refund option is provided. After users choose, they need to click the reason for refund, which facilitates the platform to collect data for relevant functions to optimize related functions.
for users' after-sales, reviews, and repurchase needs after receiving the goods. Meituan Takeaway app provides the "After-sales/Refund" function on the "My Order" page. After clicking, users can quickly apply for return and refund within 24 hours. If it cannot be solved by yourself, you can also contact customer service in "Frequently Used Functions" or directly call the provided customer service hotline for help. At the same time, for users who want to evaluate the purchased products, Meituan Takeout app has set up evaluation and small coupon functions in "My Order".
4.3.4 Summary
From the above three scenarios analysis, we can find that the functional design of Meituan Takeout APP can well meet the needs of users in the three scenarios before, during and after consumption. The high-frequency functions required by users are highlighted and distributed reasonably in the product structure, which is enough to meet the needs of users in all aspects.
5. Future Outlook
5.1 Actively plan the sinking market
sinking market refers to the markets in cities, counties and rural areas in third tier and below, including 288 cities, 3,000 counties and 40,000 townships. The total population of China's sinking market accounts for as high as 72%. The scale of users in the sinking market is huge. As an important breakthrough in promoting consumption expansion and accelerating the formation of a strong domestic market, the country has introduced a series of policies to support it. Therefore, Meituan Takeout must attach great importance to and actively plan and layout the sinking market in the future, so that it can release greater growth space and bring higher value returns. In addition, when laying out the sinking market, we must consider its uniqueness and develop and shape the sinking market according to local conditions.
5.2 Upgrade user operation methods around "cost-performance ratio" and "love-price ratio"
According to research by Meituan Research Institute, users will consider "cost-performance ratio" more in rigid demand, and more in elastic demand, "love-price ratio" more in terms of "emotional value and price index ratio" more in terms of product emotional value and price index). Meituan Takeaway has achieved a market share in the industry close to 70%, and has achieved the ultimate in pursuing the growth of user number, further increasing the input-output ratio of users. The operation method should be transferred to "user lifelong value operation". This change determines the depth of the product and users, and also determines the depth of the business. In the future, improving efficiency to create higher cost-effectiveness and optimizing experience to inspire more unique price-quality products will be a major trend in the development of Meituan takeaway platform.
5.3 Explore a variety of consumption scenarios and achieve "all things to home"
The scale of the takeaway market continues to grow under the lazy economy. In the lazy economy, consumers' demand is to "buy the whole world without leaving home", which makes them increasingly dependent on takeaway. In the future development of Meituan Takeout, we should collect and study more personalized consumption scenarios for users, and establish a reasonable supply chain to truly realize "all things come to home".Reference article:
.2022 New Catering Industry Research Report . [Dongwu Securities] Age of meticulous cultivation, on Meituan's model resilience and spaceThis article was originally published by @_Zxxxxxx. Everyone is a product manager. Reproduction is prohibited without permission. The
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The views of this article only represent the author himself. Everyone is a product manager. The platform only provides information storage space services.
From the perspective of helping merchants under the background of the epidemic, both Meituan and Ele.me have issued relevant policies to help merchants affected by the epidemic. Through comparison, it was found that Meituan’s discount targets and regions are larger, Ele.me’s discount threshold is lower and the discount intensity is greater.
3.3.3 User introduction compare
From the user traffic entrance, Meituan Takeaway uses Tencent’s “social + payment” ecosystem to superimpose triple high-frequency scenarios (social + payment, local life, in-store reviews), expanding the traffic entrance under interconnection. Against the backdrop of 21 years of interconnection, Meituan and Kuaishou have been working together to lay out short video social groups and continue to explore the traffic strategy. Ele.me mainly expands traffic users for Ele.me through two high-frequency scenarios: payment only + local life.
According to QuestMobile, in June 2020, Meituan WeChat mini program contributed 66% of active users to Meituan Takeout App, and Alipay mini program contributed only 43% of active users to Ele.me APP.
From the user usage data, , Meituan Takeout MAU (monthly active users) in 2021 basically maintained around 4 times that of Ele.me. Meituan and Meituan Takeout APP have better performance than Ele.me in terms of user stickiness characteristics (average daily time for a single user, and the proportion of daily active users to monthly active users). This is mainly due to the interaction between Meituan's local life super platform and the coordination of traffic has strengthened users' usage habits.
Compared with Ele.me and Alipay (consuming some local life functions) and Taobao (e-commerce traffic diversion), Meituan Takeout relies on the Meituan APP ecosystem to make multiple local life scenarios (in-store/new retail/cab/bike), and multi-party collaboration is more focused on the local life ecosystem.
3.3.4 Strategic layout comparison
In October 2021, Meituan adjusted the strategic "Food+Platform" to "retail + technology" , and established a "retail group" to integrate preferred, Kuailu, grocery shopping and other businesses. Meituan Takeout is an important part of Meituan's local life system. This strategy adjustment is more in line with users' needs in all aspects of "food+clothing, housing and transportation", and brings more increments to Meituan Takeout for users and merchants. At the same time, Meituan has deployed hard technology fields such as intelligent logistics, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing, which plays a very important potential role in realizing the transformation of unmanned delivery and platform web3.0 in the future.
In July 2021, Alibaba announced that Fliggy , Gaode , and Ele.me formed the "Flying Gao" life service sector , and Ele.me then launched an all-round supermarket. From this, it can be seen that Ele.me is also focusing on the layout of new retail business and hopes to form a linkage through catering takeaway and local life services.
4. Product Analysis
4.1 Product Overview
Meituan Takeout is an online food ordering platform under Meituan. It was officially launched in November 2013. It also supports two major terminal platforms: iOS and Android. The main functions are online ordering and provide food delivery services. Later, the business of running errands, self-pickup, flash purchases and other services were added. Meituan Takeout Slogan is "Meituan Takeout, everything is delivered quickly."
Meituan takeout category includes nearby food, fruits, vegetables, supermarkets, flowers, cakes, etc., whether it is brunch and dinner, afternoon tea, late-night snacks, or Chinese, Western food, home-cooked dishes, snacks, fast food, seafood, hot pot, Sichuan cuisine, cakes, barbecue, fruits, beverages, desserts, etc.
4.2 Product iteration analysis
4.2.1 Key version sorting
- 1.0.0 version (2013/11/20) – the app is online.
- 1.4.8 version (2014/06/07) – Optimize the evaluation and display of restaurants and delivery.
- 1.5.0 version (2014/07/12) – Online order cancellation and timeout compensation function.
- 2.0.0 version (2014/08/07) – Online payment function is launched.
- 3.4.1 version (2015/05/05) – Smart address recommendation function is launched.
- 3.5.3 version (2015/06/25) – Real-time delivery status, urge orders and another order function.
- 3.8.0 version (2015/10/08) – Online meal reservations, vouchers, and online customer service functions.
- 4.0.0 version (2015/11/17) – Replace the brand new logo and kangaroo image.
- 4.2.0 version (2016/02/02) – Optimize search, filtering and other functions.
- 4.5.0 version (2016/06/02) – Red envelope sharing function is launched.
- 5.0.0 version (2016/08/30) – Supports WeChat binding, launches WeChat headlines, stealing red envelopes and other functions.
- 5.8.0 version (2017/07/06) – Online home page global shopping cart function .
- 5.9.0 version (2017/08/01) – The number privacy protection function is launched.
- 5.10.0 version (2017/8/30) – Online pick-up service.
- 6.6.5 version (2018/06/07) – Online Meituan flash sale page.
- 6.8.0 version (2018/08/06) – Red envelope package upgrade, can be redeemed for large-scale merchant red envelopes.
- 7.8.0 version (2019/03/25) – Pin-sharing and access mini program
- 7.30.0 version (2020/02/20) – Online contactless and secure delivery
- 7.71.0 version (2021/11/16) – Replace the new logo
- 7.76.0 version (2022/01/24) – The search function is newly upgraded.
- 7.77.0 version (2022/02/21) – Launching inflatable takeaway coupons
4.2.2 Product launch, improve the basic functions
Before July 2015, V1.0.0-V3.5.3 version is the launch stage of Meituan Takeaway app. Meituan extends to develop the exploration process of takeaway from group purchase. The main goal of this stage of is to verify user needs and polish user experience . Most of the functions online at this stage are tool-oriented, such as optimizing restaurants, delivery evaluation and display, order cancellation and timeout compensation functions, online payment function, smart address recommendation function, real-time delivery status, order urge, another order function, meal reservation, voucher, online customer service function. Most of them are basic functions to facilitate users to order online.
4.2.3 Build an operation tool to further expand the user scale
From October 2015 to August 2018, the version from V3.8.0 to V6.8.0 is the rapid growth period of Meituan Takeaway app, and expanding user scale and increasing market share have become the focus of product iteration. focuses on adding some operating tools to build at this stage, such as red envelope sharing function, vouchers, and Tencent ecosystem inlay. Combined with WeChat's powerful social genes, reduce operating costs through users' active recruitment of new products, and achieve the expansion of the speed of virus transmission.
In October 2015, Meituan APP Meituan and Dianping officially announced the merger. Meituan received strong traffic and offline merchants' support, and at the same time opened the self-built delivery network and order distribution system. In November of the same year, it received a US$1 billion lead investment from Tencent, with a total financing scale of approximately US$3 billion. After sufficient ammunition, it accelerated its operational pace. At this stage, Meituan Takeout has obvious advantages in traffic channels. In addition to Meituan and Dianping, Tencent has opened two S-level traffic portals: WeChat and QQ. The popularity of Meituan Takeout APP is constantly expanding, and the number of users has achieved explosive growth at this stage. In 2016, Meituan Takeout market share exceeded Ele.me and became the first in the industry.
4.2.4 Continuously optimize products, expand business through multiple channels, and continuously enrich takeaway scenarios
From August 2018 to the present, Meituan Takeaway APP has launched the V7.0 major version, and this stage is the maturity of Meituan Takeaway APP. continuously optimizes basic functions at the product level, such as optimizing search functions, increasing privacy management functions, supporting online delivery of harvest addresses to riders, etc., to continue to polish the user experience. At the same time, through some new functions, such as writing reviews and posting pictures for orders, you can get redemption of gold beans, red envelopes for takeout after college students complete certification, and the "summon merchant" function to improve user activity and user stickiness. The core work of
at this stage is to continuously enrich takeaway scenarios, meet the diverse needs of users, continuously expand business channels, and open up the era of "everything comes home". As of Q2 2020, Meituan takeaway market share reached 68.2%, and this value is constantly increasing.
4.3 Product structure analysis
For the convenience of analysis, by re-sorting the product structure of Meituan Takeout APP according to users, scenarios, needs and functions, you will get the following table:
When users use Meituan app, there will be three main scenarios. These scenarios will be combined with specific analysis of the product layout and functions:
- The process of users browsing and selecting products before consumption.
- The process of users confirming order information, preferential use, and payment methods during the payment process.
- users track and modify order information and evaluate repurchase orders after consumption.
4.3.1 Before consumption
Before consumption, the product function of Meituan app is mainly used to guide users to clarify their needs, select suitable products, and then place orders for products.
For users with no clear purchase needs , Meituan app displays all Meituan categories in the homepage-product category. Users can quickly understand all product categories provided by the platform through this column. At the same time, the various modules on the homepage will display products to users, such as "Internet celebrity store list, today's hot products, and people nearby are eating", which directly solves the pain points of users' demand for not knowing what to buy. In addition, when users browse home page and merchant details page, home page, store banner pictures, product details pictures, etc. further attract users to clarify their needs and guide users to place orders.
For users with clear purchase targets , Meituan app has set up a search bar at the top of the homepage. Users can directly locate this function to quickly search for products. At the same time, a product category is set up at the bottom of the search bar on the home page. All types of this product of Meituan app are displayed in this area. For users who have a clear need to purchase categories, they can quickly lock in and enter the target area to purchase products. In addition, when entering the target purchasing area, you can filter and filter prices, sales volume, discounts, and delivery time through the filtering function, so as to quickly select products that meet the conditions.
For users with discount needs, Meituan app specially sets this column for membership in the product structure, so that users can quickly obtain preferential rights and information of platform members. At the same time, a discount recommendation module has been set up in the homepage-merchant recommendation, such as "50% off for milk tea, reduced distribution as low as 0 yuan, 30% off for food, Monday coffee discount", etc. Users with discount needs can be attracted as soon as possible when opening the APP to browse the homepage, improving merchant screening efficiency and promoting order rate.
4.3.2 In payment
payment stage, the main function of Meituan app is to provide order information confirmation functions, fast and diverse payment forms, discount matching options, etc., to guide users to complete order settlement, ensure the correctness of orders, and reduce the risk of refunds.After the user adds the required products to the shopping cart, before placing an order, on the one hand, they may need to increase or decrease the quantity and type of products, and on the other hand, they will pay more attention to some discounts or free shipping activities. To this end, the platform has set up functions such as deletion of product quantity, order collection, red envelope display, and low-price exchange on the shopping cart interface, and meets various needs.
Given that different users are familiar with different payment methods, Meituan Takeout has launched a diversified payment channel with WeChat, Alipay and many banks. Especially with the support of credit card payment, users can obtain greater discounts and exemptions.
For users who are afraid of order information errors, Meituan app sets up an order confirmation and settlement page. Before payment, the user conducts a secondary verification of the purchased goods through a clearly clear settlement page to determine the delivery time, delivery address, delivery fee, payment amount, etc.
For users with discount matching needs , Meituan app sets Meituan red envelopes, merchant vouchers, discount rules, etc. in the settlement page, so that users who need it can DIY the discount, and at the same time, they can see the discount details and understand the price composition more.
For users with special needs such as tableware, invoices, privacy, etc., Meituan app sets tableware quantity, invoices, number protection, etc. on the settlement page. Users can meet their personal needs through clicking and selecting, and at the same time communicate with merchants other personalized needs of orders through notes.
4.3.3 Post-consumption
Post-consumption stage, the main function of Meituan app is to track and modify order status, after-sales, reviews and quick repurchase of orders.
For users' needs to track, modify and return orders after placing an order, , Meituan Takeaway app provides users with relevant functions to track orders in the "Add to receive" module, which facilitates users to check whether the order is delivered, view delivery information, view delivery path, etc. At the same time, the order details provide modules such as modifying the delivery address, consignee information, and delivery time. In addition, for the refund requirement, a refund option is provided. After users choose, they need to click the reason for refund, which facilitates the platform to collect data for relevant functions to optimize related functions.
for users' after-sales, reviews, and repurchase needs after receiving the goods. Meituan Takeaway app provides the "After-sales/Refund" function on the "My Order" page. After clicking, users can quickly apply for return and refund within 24 hours. If it cannot be solved by yourself, you can also contact customer service in "Frequently Used Functions" or directly call the provided customer service hotline for help. At the same time, for users who want to evaluate the purchased products, Meituan Takeout app has set up evaluation and small coupon functions in "My Order".
4.3.4 Summary
From the above three scenarios analysis, we can find that the functional design of Meituan Takeout APP can well meet the needs of users in the three scenarios before, during and after consumption. The high-frequency functions required by users are highlighted and distributed reasonably in the product structure, which is enough to meet the needs of users in all aspects.
5. Future Outlook
5.1 Actively plan the sinking market
sinking market refers to the markets in cities, counties and rural areas in third tier and below, including 288 cities, 3,000 counties and 40,000 townships. The total population of China's sinking market accounts for as high as 72%. The scale of users in the sinking market is huge. As an important breakthrough in promoting consumption expansion and accelerating the formation of a strong domestic market, the country has introduced a series of policies to support it. Therefore, Meituan Takeout must attach great importance to and actively plan and layout the sinking market in the future, so that it can release greater growth space and bring higher value returns. In addition, when laying out the sinking market, we must consider its uniqueness and develop and shape the sinking market according to local conditions.
5.2 Upgrade user operation methods around "cost-performance ratio" and "love-price ratio"
According to research by Meituan Research Institute, users will consider "cost-performance ratio" more in rigid demand, and more in elastic demand, "love-price ratio" more in terms of "emotional value and price index ratio" more in terms of product emotional value and price index). Meituan Takeaway has achieved a market share in the industry close to 70%, and has achieved the ultimate in pursuing the growth of user number, further increasing the input-output ratio of users. The operation method should be transferred to "user lifelong value operation". This change determines the depth of the product and users, and also determines the depth of the business. In the future, improving efficiency to create higher cost-effectiveness and optimizing experience to inspire more unique price-quality products will be a major trend in the development of Meituan takeaway platform.
5.3 Explore a variety of consumption scenarios and achieve "all things to home"
The scale of the takeaway market continues to grow under the lazy economy. In the lazy economy, consumers' demand is to "buy the whole world without leaving home", which makes them increasingly dependent on takeaway. In the future development of Meituan Takeout, we should collect and study more personalized consumption scenarios for users, and establish a reasonable supply chain to truly realize "all things come to home".Reference article:
.2022 New Catering Industry Research Report . [Dongwu Securities] Age of meticulous cultivation, on Meituan's model resilience and spaceThis article was originally published by @_Zxxxxxx. Everyone is a product manager. Reproduction is prohibited without permission. The
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The views of this article only represent the author himself. Everyone is a product manager. The platform only provides information storage space services.
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