Meituan Posts Higher Profit, Revenue Despite Fierce Competition

By Tracy Qu

Meituan reported higher profit and revenue in the first quarter despite increasingly stiff competition at home.

The Beijing-based shopping-and-delivery platform on Thursday posted a net profit of 5.37 billion yuan ($740.9 million), up 60% from a year earlier. The result was better than the CNY3.91 billion profit expected in a FactSet poll of analysts.

Revenue rose 25% to CNY73.28 billion, beating a FactSet estimate of CNY69.94 billion.

Quarterly revenue from its core local-commerce segment rose 27%, helped by robust growth in its on-demand delivery business and hotel and travel-booking services.

The company's new initiatives segment, which includes its community group-buying unit, grew its revenue by 18.5% and narrowed its operating loss to CNY2.76 billion.

Meituan, a dominant player in the Chinese food-delivery market, has been looking to expand overseas to bolster growth as its domestic business slows. It is also facing fierce competition in its home market from the likes of Ele.me, the food-delivery service owned by Alibaba Group, and ByteDance's Douyin, TikTok's sister platform in China, which is trying to grab a slice of the market.

Write to Tracy Qu at tracy.qu@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 06, 2024 05:17 ET (09:17 GMT)

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