Meituan is a Beijing-based Chinese delivery platform, expanding into South America. It employs 7.5m couriers, typically via third-party contracting firms, who are paid a combined $11bn a year. Its workforce is 41% larger than it was in 2021. In March 2025 the company said it expected healthy growth of both food and shopping delivery; forecasters project 15% annual sales growth until 2027.
Meituan is pioneering the use of autonomous vehicles and drones for delivery, which it says have completed 4.9m and 1.5m customer orders respectively. It set up its drone operation in Shenzhen in 2019, taking advantage of a pilot scheme. Mao Yinian, the executive in charge of drone delivery, says the firm wants drones to account for 10% of total deliveries within five to ten years. On its busiest day in 2025, Meituan delivered 98m orders across China. Each drone delivery is capped at 2.3kg. A control centre in Shenzhen tracks flights, with more than 100 drones in the air at peak times; drones operate on routes designated for Meituan's exclusive use. In 2025 it extended its network to thousands of new counties to help Chinese exporters pivot to domestic sales amid the trade war with America.
The company has said it will "gradually provide" social-security benefits for its couriers, starting with a pilot scheme in the southern city of Quanzhou in 2025 to reimburse half of pension premiums for qualifying drivers. The move followed government pressure on platform firms to provide welfare as the gig economy became a labour-market cushion during the trade war.
In early 2025 JD.com entered the food-delivery market, sparking a price war with Meituan and Alibaba's Ele.me service. Meituan is estimated to make just one yuan per delivery. Bocom International Securities lowered its profit forecast for Meituan by 17% for 2025. Before the delivery wars began, the average driver made an estimated 33.6 yuan per hour, according to a Renmin University study. Meituan says its drivers' average income has risen by 111% since June 2025 because of the flood of new orders, though drivers report that income per delivery is falling and that they must work far longer hours to earn more. The company has also started selling "instant" smartphones and other electronics, promising they will not be late. Netizens have taken to reposting a classical Chinese phrase used to describe the cruelty of the Qin Dynasty, substituting the super-app's name: "Life under Meituan is suffering."
Meituan has evolved from a food-delivery service into a super-app. It is developing its own AI models as it competes with Alibaba and other Chinese tech giants for dominance in the AI era.
Chemicals, n.: Noxious substances from which modern foods are made.