Meituan Muscles In on Livestreaming E-Commerce With Inaugural Event

What’s new: Food delivery giant Meituan has jumped on the livestreaming e-commerce bandwagon by hosting its first livestreamed shopping event, a move widely seen as a counteroffensive aimed at video platform operators such as ByteDance Ltd., which earlier rolled out offerings in the local services and delivery arena.

Takeout coupons worth 86 million yuan ($12.5 million) were sold on Tuesday during a marketing event, which included an 11-hour livestream shopping show, according to a Meituan statement. Major companies that participated in the event included Luckin Coffee Inc. and budget bubble tea chain Mixue Bingcheng Co. Ltd., which sold more than 15 million and 1 million cups of drinks, respectively, according to Meituan.