Meituan aggressively targets "New Year's Eve dinner"

Author | Liu Baodan

Editor | Zhou Zhiyu

As the most active holiday for socializing among Chinese people, the Spring Festival holds significant business opportunities. Meituan, the "king of local life," has already set its sights on growth opportunities for the Spring Festival in 2025.

The online popularity of Meituan's New Year's Eve dinner is continuously rising. According to Wall Street Insights, as of January 16, the order volume for New Year's Eve dinners booked through the Meituan App and Dianping App half a month in advance has increased by 305% compared to last year. Over 40,000 catering merchants nationwide are providing online reservation services for New Year's Eve seats on Meituan.

At the same time, takeout and delivery services for New Year's Eve dinners are gradually emerging, with the number of catering merchants offering related services on Meituan increasing by 220% year-on-year.

This means that Meituan is likely to seize the consumer hotspot of the Spring Festival in 2025, ushering in a wave of business growth.

On January 20, Meituan's stock price closed at HKD 155.500, up 5.21%, marking the highest increase since 2025.

To some extent, the order volume for New Year's Eve dinners is an important signal, representing not only Meituan's deeper integration into daily life but also its enhanced capabilities as a local life platform in terms of product supply and matchmaking efficiency.

In recent years, Meituan has gradually regained its development advantages on the local life battlefield. After stabilizing its position against the rising competitor Douyin, Meituan has begun to take the initiative.

On November 29, Meituan released its performance announcement for the three months ending September 30, 2024, reporting revenue of CNY 93.58 billion, a year-on-year increase of 22.4%, and a net profit of CNY 12.86 billion, up 258.0% year-on-year. The number of annual transaction users, active merchants, and the average consumption frequency of annual transaction users have all continued to grow, reaching historical highs.

Meituan is also making rapid business adjustments to better respond to changes in the local life market in recent years. In February 2024, Meituan CEO Wang Xing will integrate the home business group and the in-store business group into "Core Local Business," with Wang Puzhong appointed as CEO. This marks the first large-scale organizational and personnel adjustment for Meituan in three years.

After the merger, Meituan is expected to release greater synergy effects between its group buying and delivery businesses, which have a high degree of overlap on the supply side. Meituan has proposed an all-scenario business operation concept, considering the overall strategy for in-store and delivery businesses, which is also the confidence behind Meituan's push for New Year's Eve dinner business in the Spring Festival of 2025.

From the current reservation data, intangible cultural heritage cuisine and hotel New Year's Eve dinners are emerging trends. Meituan's data shows that since January, the order volume for "intangible cultural heritage" themed group buying packages has increased by more than 12 times, and the reservation volume for New Year's Eve dinners at Black Pearl restaurants has increased by over 120% year-on-year.

A manager of a high-end restaurant in Suzhou stated that all private rooms for New Year's Eve have already been booked. The restaurant has launched a series of packages this year, providing customized banquets based on customer needs, with dishes containing intangible cultural heritage elements, such as Su-style braised pork rice, being particularly popular.

Regarding hotel New Year's Eve dinners, Meituan Travel data shows that Nanjing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, and Shanghai are the top five cities for hotel New Year's Eve dinner reservations. A relevant person from Meituan Hotels stated, "This year, more people are booking New Year's Eve dinners at hotels. The 8 to 10 person hotel New Year's Eve dinner package is a hot choice among diners, especially favored by users in the south." In addition, Meituan has launched the "Spring Festival Never Closes" campaign, with over one million catering businesses already signed up. At the same time, Meituan has partnered with merchants to carry out Spring Festival consumption promotion activities. Users searching for "Wonderful Spring Festival" can directly access the event venue, and there is a limited distribution of a 68 yuan coupon package.

Over the past decade, Meituan has successfully broken through the group buying and food delivery wars, establishing its position as the king of local life. In the past two years, Meituan has also stabilized its market competition landscape in the war with Douyin. A series of competitions have sounded the alarm for Meituan; in a constantly changing market, taking the initiative may be more important than passive defense.

In addition to seizing the Spring Festival holiday, Meituan is also continuously refreshing its presence. The company not only sponsors the currently popular variety show "A Journey of Blossoms," but has also officially announced Hu Ge, Liu Yifei, and others as spokespersons for its group buying and food delivery businesses in 2024.

After more than a decade of development, the local life market is becoming increasingly competitive. In addition to the significant threat posed by Douyin, Alibaba, JD.com, Kuaishou, Xiaohongshu, and others are also vying for a share of the local life market, and the battle will further escalate in 2025.

For Meituan, seizing every consumption hotspot and continuously improving market penetration is both a strategy for capturing the market and a path for capability iteration. This time, Meituan has chosen to take the initiative, which is destined to be a close-quarters battle