INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
A major player in the race to transport Chinese people around is losing steam
Meituan Dianping, the Tencent-backed all-encompassing platform for local services, continues to put the brakes on bike-sharing and
ride-hailing, the company said on its earnings call on Thursday.
The eight-year-old firm is best known for competing with Alibaba-owned
Ele.me in food deliveries — the segment that makesup the majority of its sales — and hotel booking, but it aggressively branched into
various fronts like transportation.
In April, Meituan entered the bike-sharing fray after it scooped up top player Mobike for $2.7 billion
to face off Alibaba-backed Ofo
Over the past few years, Mobike and Ofo were burning through large sums of investormoney in a bid to win users from subsidized rides, but
both have shown signs of softening their stance recently
Mobike is downsizing its fleets to &avoid an oversupply& as the bike-sharing market
falters, Meituan chief financial officer Chen Shaohui said during the earnings call
Ofo has also scaled back by closing down many of its international operations.
In the meantime, Meituan said it has no plans to expand
car-hailing beyond its two piloting cities — Shanghai and Nanjing — after venturing into the field to take on Didi Chuxing last
The update is consistent with what the firm announced in its prospectus ahead of a blockbuster $4.2 billion initial public offering in Hong
Kong this September.
The halt is likely related to changing dynamics in the country shared rides
Following two passenger murderson Didi,the Softbank-backed transportation platform thattook over Uber Chinain 2016, Chinese regulators
launched their strictest verification requirements for drivers across all ride-hailing apps
The mandate has squeezed drivernumbers, making it harder to hire rides onDidi and itscompetitors.
During its third quarter that ended
September 30, Meituan posted a 97.2 percent jump on revenues to 19.1 billion yuan, or $2.75 billion, on the back of strong growth in food
The firm investments in new initiatives & including ride-hailing and bike-sharing & took a toll as operating losses nearly tripled to 3.45
billion yuan compared to a year ago
Meituan shares plunged as much as 14 percent on Friday, the most since its spectacular listing.
