Meituan: Customers pursue super cost-effectiveness, AI helps catering businesses in decision-making and operations

Domestic media quoted Meituan-W (03690.HK) data reporting that this year, 70% of new takeaway orders fall within the low-price range of under 15 RMB. After the "takeaway war" in May this year, nearly half of the order growth driven by subsidies is for beverages. At the same time, the growth rate of the domestic catering industry has also significantly slowed down in recent years, and by 2025, the average spending per customer in dine-in catering has returned to levels seen a decade ago.

Wang Puzhong, CEO of Core Local Business, stated that customers' demand for super cost-effectiveness is reshaping the catering industry; however, cost-effectiveness should not rely on internal competition among peers but rather require businesses to leverage structural cost advantages and comprehensively enhance operational levels.

He mentioned that AI helps catering businesses operate, and Meituan has recently launched AI tools such as "Kangaroo Advisor" and "Smart Storekeeper." "Kangaroo Advisor" assists businesses in decision-making from four aspects: track analysis, store location selection, dish development, and business operations; during the testing phase, over a thousand catering brands and community stores participated in the experience, generating reports more than 100,000 times. Data shows that with the AI location selection tool of "Kangaroo Advisor," the accuracy rate of business location selection reaches 87%.

As for "Smart Storekeeper," it provides intelligent services for various in-depth operational aspects such as package design, front desk reception, review responses, and store traffic analysis. Currently, over 1.5 million customers have experienced services such as consultation, reservation, and queue number retrieval, and over one million stores have applied "Smart Storekeeper," with more than 186,000 stores enabling the AI reception function