JD.com Invades Meituan Turf, Reigniting Battle of Deliveries (AI Translation)
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文｜财新周刊 包云红 孙嫣然 屈运栩
By Caixin Weekly's Bao Yunhong, Sun Yanran, and Qu Yunxu
On January 25, 2025, Richard Liu Qiangdong, founder of JD.com, made a high-profile return to the public eye after more than four years of absence by attending JD Logistics' annual Spring Festival banquet. Soon after, he sparked a product category battle in China's internet sector not seen in years: JD.com announced a "10 Billion Yuan Subsidy" campaign to launch its food delivery business.
4月21日晚，有用户在社交平台发文称：“东哥为我送外卖”，同时配上与身穿外卖服、拿着外卖的刘强东的合照；刘强东送完外卖后与骑手吃海底捞火锅的视频，也很快在社交网络流传并冲上热搜。
On the evening of April 21, a user posted on social media, claiming: “Dongge delivered my takeout,” accompanied by a photo with Liu Qiangdong, who was dressed in a food delivery uniform and holding a takeout order. Shortly thereafter, a video showing Liu Qiangdong eating Haidilao hotpot with delivery riders after completing the delivery spread rapidly across social media platforms and quickly climbed the trending lists.
过去两个多月，京东“一号位”刘强东亲自挂帅外卖业务，以个人流量撬动舆论战先行，并对商户、骑手和消费者三方连续发力：2月11日启动“品质堂食餐饮商家”招募，对5月1日前入驻的商家全年免佣金；2月19日宣布逐步为京东外卖全职骑手缴纳五险一金；2月27日开始面向在校大学生和京东PLUS会员发放外卖补贴券；4月11日，宣布百亿补贴全面上线。
Over the past two months, JD.com’s top executive, Liu Qiangdong, has personally taken charge of the company’s food delivery operations. Leveraging his personal influence, Liu has led an aggressive public relations campaign while simultaneously targeting merchants, delivery riders, and consumers with a series of strategic moves. On February 11, JD.com launched a recruitment drive for “Quality Dine-in Restaurant Merchants,” promising a full year of zero commission to businesses that join before May 1. On February 19, the company announced it would gradually begin contributing to the five mandatory social insurances and housing fund for all full-time riders on JD Delivery. By February 27, JD began issuing food delivery coupons to university students and JD PLUS members. Most recently, on April 11, JD unveiled a comprehensive rollout of its “10 Billion Yuan Subsidy” campaign for delivery services.
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- JD.com, led by founder Richard Liu, aggressively entered China's food delivery market in early 2025, rapidly hitting over 10 million daily orders in 72 days with major subsidies and labor rights initiatives, challenging Meituan's dominance (Meituan’s market share: 65%, Ele.me: 33%).
- JD.com’s subsidy-driven campaign triggered a price war, compelling Meituan and Alibaba’s Ele.me to launch their own multi-billion yuan subsidy campaigns and intensifying competition in the largely saturated market.
- Meituan and JD.com are expanding instant retail (sub-30 minute delivery) services, vying for user traffic and supply chain control, while market growth slows and platform profitability is pressured by ongoing heavy subsidies.
On January 25, 2025, Richard Liu Qiangdong, founder of JD.com, made his first high-profile public appearance in over four years at JD Logistics’ Spring Festival banquet, marking his personal return to the helm as JD.com aggressively entered China’s food delivery market with a “10 Billion Yuan Subsidy” campaign, a move that ignited a fierce product category battle rarely seen in the country’s internet sector in recent years. Liu amplified the campaign’s visibility by personally delivering takeout and sharing a hotpot meal with couriers, which led to widespread trending on social media. [para. 1][para. 2]
Over the following months, Liu personally led the operations and PR push for JD Food Delivery, offering zero commissions to restaurant partners, social insurance for full-time riders, and regular coupons for students and JD PLUS members. These moves, framed as addressing labor rights and ending “exclusive platform” practices, were clearly targeted at Meituan, China’s dominant food delivery provider, spurring a new round of commercial and reputational rivalry. Meituan responded by announcing its own rider social insurance plan and pledging a 100-billion-yuan investment to support merchants and expand its programs, while Alibaba’s Ele.me also entered the price war, unveiling subsidy campaigns of up to 20 billion yuan and elevating instant retail services. [para. 3][para. 4][para. 5][para. 6]
The frenzied competition comes after years of strategic contraction among China’s internet giants. JD.com’s entry into food delivery was both a response to Meituan’s expansion into JD’s retail turf and a strategic necessity amid slowing core business growth. Liu himself framed the move as a reciprocal reaction to Meituan’s foray into instant retail electronics, signaling a willingness to fight for new growth areas and customer engagement. [para. 7][para. 8][para. 9]
JD.com’s campaign yielded quick results: within 72 days, its food delivery platform surpassed 10 million daily orders, albeit fueled by daily subsidies of up to 100 million yuan. The influx of orders even temporarily crashed JD’s backend system. Some merchants reported order surges as JD’s consumer discounts outpaced Meituan, but once Meituan countered with its own subsidies, JD’s share retreated. The price war impacted both companies’ stock prices, which fell by roughly 25% between March and April 2025, while Alibaba shares rose after its involvement. Meituan and Ele.me together still controlled nearly 98% of the market, with Meituan alone at over 60%. [para. 11][para. 12][para. 13][para. 14]
Competition has intensified not just on price, but also on merchant and courier terms. JD capped commissions at 5%, below Meituan’s 6-8%, and criticized Meituan’s restrictive practices; Meituan, previously fined 3.44 billion yuan for antitrust violations, countered that the new entrant’s accusations overstated the problem. JD’s open provision of social insurance for full-time riders (and high pay) drew riders from Meituan to JD, but JD adjusted fees and reduced subsidies as growth stabilized. [para. 16][para. 17][para. 18]
Both companies are racing to build out “instant retail”—the broader, highly profitable market for 30-minute delivery of everything from groceries to consumer electronics. Meituan has invested heavily, with 30,000 “flash warehouses” and millions of merchants, while JD leverages self-operated stores and partnerships. The instant retail market is projected to exceed 1 trillion yuan in 2025 and 2 trillion by 2030, promising double-digit compound annual growth. [para. 24][para. 25][para. 26][para. 27][para. 28][para. 33]
After years of consolidation, Meituan and Ele.me hold a duopoly over the food delivery market (65% and 33% respectively in 2024), with new entrants largely drawing market share, not expanding the overall pie. The total online food delivery user base reached 592 million, but growth has slowed since 2020. While JD.com’s spend-fueled rise drew attention, its ability to turn food delivery into a sustainable, long-term business hinges on achieving Ele.me-level daily volumes and operational sophistication, especially in logistics and algorithmic efficiency. Some industry figures doubt JD’s ability to build the required merchant ecosystem and sophisticated operations. [para. 62][para. 63][para. 66][para. 70]
Ultimately, JD.com’s food delivery play is as much about increasing daily active users and platform engagement as about profit, and may shift the battleground from food delivery to broader instantaneous retail. Meituan remains ahead in infrastructure, algorithms, and market share, but all players face challenges in turning subsidies and fast growth into sustainable, profitable operations. [para. 68][para. 73][para. 74]
- JD.com
京东 - JD.com, led by founder Richard Liu, re-entered China’s food delivery sector in early 2025, launching “billion-yuan subsidies” to aggressively challenge Meituan’s dominance. JD leverages logistics strengths, offers low commissions (≤5%), subsidizes users and merchants, and promises social insurance for full-time couriers. The move aims to boost JD’s high-frequency user traffic, counter Meituan’s expansion into instant retail, and revitalize JD’s business growth amid slowing e-commerce performance and intensifying industry competition.
- JD Logistics
京东物流 - JD Logistics, originally established as JD.com's logistics arm, played a pivotal role in JD's competitive edge by enabling fast and reliable delivery. During the current business push, JD Logistics supported the expansion into on-demand services, collaborating with teams like Dada for last-mile delivery. Their extensive warehousing and distribution network allowed JD to pursue the high-frequency, 30-minute delivery model central to its current rivalry with Meituan in the takeaway and instant retail sectors.
- Meituan
美团 - Meituan holds a dominant position in China’s food delivery market, with around 65% share and 600 million daily orders in 2024. It expanded non-food delivery via its “Meituan Flash Buy” (Shangou) service, reportedly reaching 16 million daily orders for non-food items. Meituan has responded to JD.com's entry into the market by increasing subsidies, promising social insurance for riders, and investing 100 billion yuan to support the catering industry over three years.
- Ele.me
饿了么 - Ele.me, owned by Alibaba since 2018, is a major player in China's food delivery sector with about 2,500–3,000 million daily orders and a 33% market share, second only to Meituan. In April 2025, facing intensified competition from JD.com and Meituan's subsidies, Ele.me launched its "Ele.me 100 Billion Yuan Subsidy" campaign, with support from Alibaba CEO Wu Yongming, positioning itself as a core local e-commerce service in Alibaba's new strategic focus.
- Alibaba Group
阿里巴巴 - Alibaba Group joined the food delivery “subsidy war” on April 30, 2025, as JD.com’s commission-free policy deadline approached. Ele.me, owned by Alibaba, launched a “100+ billion yuan subsidy” campaign. Insiders said Alibaba may allocate up to 20 billion yuan to support Ele.me. At the same time, Alibaba upgraded its instant retail service "Taobao Flash Sale," giving it major homepage exposure and rolling it out nationwide, emphasizing local e-commerce as a strategic focus.
- Taobao
淘宝 - Taobao, under Alibaba, upgraded its “Hour Delivery” (即时零售) service to a primary “Taobao Flash Sale” (淘宝闪购) entry on the homepage, launching first in 50 cities and nationwide on May 6. On April 30, Taobao Tmall teamed up with Ele.me to announce over 10 billion RMB in subsidies for its food delivery business, intensifying competition with JD.com and Meituan in the instant retail and delivery sector.
- Tmall
天猫 - The article mentions that Tmall, under Alibaba, has an instant retail service called "Taobao Hourly Delivery," which was upgraded in 2024 to a first-tier homepage entrance called "Taobao Flash Sale," launching initially in 50 cities and later expanding nationwide. This move, together with Ele.me’s major subsidy campaign, marks Alibaba's intensified competition in the on-demand delivery and instant retail market against Meituan and JD.com.
- Dada Group
达达集团 - Dada Group is a key player in JD.com's instant retail and delivery business. JD owns over 63% of Dada, which operates JD's instant delivery and retail platforms. Dada merged with JD Daojia in 2016 and went public in 2020, but has recently faced declining revenue and internal challenges. In early 2025, JD announced plans to privatize Dada, expecting completion in the third quarter of 2025.
- Douyin
抖音 - According to the article, since 2023 Douyin has expanded into local life services and challenged Meituan’s local business. On April 29, Douyin launched a zero-commission policy until June 30, 2025, for quality retail merchants in categories like apparel, beauty, etc., along with incentives supporting brands and supermarkets in instant retail. However, Douyin’s previous attempts at food delivery have seen only limited progress.
- Pinduoduo
拼多多 - The article mentions that Pinduoduo has surpassed JD.com in the domestic e-commerce market, contributing to JD.com's sense of crisis. Since 2023, JD.com's main e-commerce business has fallen to fourth place, after Pinduoduo and Douyin e-commerce, highlighting increased competition in China's online retail sector.
- Tencent
腾讯 - According to the article, since 2023, major Chinese internet companies like Tencent have entered a period of strategic contraction, focusing on core businesses, reducing costs, and improving efficiency. Tencent, in particular, has placed greater emphasis on the value of the WeChat ecosystem while divesting or discontinuing underperforming businesses. This shift occurred amid wider industry trends of consolidation and competitive realignment.
- WeChat
微信 - The article mentions that, after 2018, platforms like Didi, Douyin, Kuaishou, and WeChat all attempted to enter the food delivery market, but none made significant progress. WeChat, specifically, is noted for Tencent’s increased focus on leveraging its ecosystem value as part of a broader strategy to concentrate on its core business and enhance operational efficiency.
- RT-Mart
大润发 - According to the article, Alibaba engaged in strategic downsizing and sold off non-core assets such as RT-Mart (大润发) and Intime Department Store. This was part of Alibaba’s recent shift to focus on its main businesses, specifically AI and e-commerce. RT-Mart is only mentioned in this context, as an example of offloaded offline retail assets.
- Intime Department Store
银泰百货 - According to the article, Alibaba sold its offline retail assets, including Intime Department Store (银泰百货), as part of its strategic shift to focus on its core businesses, improve efficiency, and divest from less successful or emerging ventures. This move reflects Alibaba’s trend, starting in 2023, of concentrating resources on main business lines and scaling back on physical retail investments.
- Suning
苏宁 - According to the article, Suning is mentioned as one of the competitors that JD.com (Jingdong) fought against in the past. JD.com’s founder Liu Qiangdong personally led battles against Suning and Gome in the home appliance sector. There are no further details about Suning's recent activities or involvement in the current food delivery or instant retail competition.
- GOME
国美 - According to the article, GOME is mentioned as one of the companies that JD.com (Jingdong) has competed with in the past. Specifically, JD.com founder Liu Qiangdong previously led battles against Dangdang in books and against Suning and GOME in home appliances. No further details about GOME are provided in the article.
- Dangdang
当当 - According to the article, Dangdang was one of the early competitors that JD.com (Jingdong) fought against under the personal leadership of founder Liu Qiangdong. Their business rivalry is mentioned as part of JD's history of market battles, specifically in the book sector. There are no further details provided about Dangdang in this article.
- Wanda Group
万达 - According to the article, Guo Qing, former Vice President of Meituan, joined Meituan in March 2014 from Wanda Group. There is no additional information about Wanda Group in the article.
- Xianglu Technology
橡鹭科技 - Xianglu Technology is an AI cooking robot company founded by Guo Qing, a former Meituan vice president. After leaving Meituan in 2021, Guo established Xianglu Technology, which received tens of millions of RMB in funding from JD.com at the end of 2023. Guo Qing later took leadership roles in JD’s real-time retail and delivery business, with Xianglu remaining a notable startup in the AI kitchen equipment sector.
- Walmart
沃尔玛 - According to the article, Walmart has collaborated closely with JD.com in China. In 2016, Walmart’s physical stores were connected to JD Daojia (JD's on-demand retail platform) with delivery handled by Dada. Walmart and JD have also co-invested in Dada, and by 2024, JD will acquire all of Walmart’s shares in Dada, increasing JD’s stake to 63.2%. Walmart’s stores provide a significant offline retail resource for JD’s local delivery operations.
- Yonghui
永辉 - According to the article, Yonghui is mentioned as one of the major domestic supermarkets that partnered with JD.com for delivery services. At its peak, cooperation between JD.com and Yonghui enabled delivery from up to 1,000 stores, which was the highest number among local supermarkets in China at that time.
- RT-Mart
大润发 - According to the article, Alibaba has sold offline retail assets including RT-Mart ("大润发") as part of its recent strategic focus on core businesses and efficiency. This move is mentioned alongside the sale of other assets such as Intime Department Store, reflecting Alibaba’s shift away from less profitable or non-core ventures.
- MINISO
名创优品 - According to the article, MINISO (名创优品) is involved in Meituan’s “Flash Sale” (闪购) business. In 2024, Meituan shifted its focus to branded, category-specific “flash warehouses,” including bringing in MINISO to open over 500 such warehouses. This expansion increased supply in daily goods, apparel, and personal care products through Meituan’s instant retail platform.
- Apple
苹果 - The article mentions Apple as one of the brands cooperating with Meituan Flash Grocery (Meituan闪购) within its branded “lightning warehouses.” This cooperation is part of Meituan’s strategy to expand its product range and improve supply for its instant retail business, especially in categories like consumer electronics. Apple is listed alongside brands such as Huawei, Xiaomi, Midea, Walmart, Decathlon, and MUJI.
- Huawei
华为 - According to the article, Huawei is mentioned as one of the brands that have cooperated with Meituan Flash Buy (美团闪购). Meituan Flash Buy collaborates with various major brands—including Apple, Huawei, Xiaomi, Midea, Walmart, Decathlon, and Muji—to enhance product offerings and supply in their instant retail business. No further detail about Huawei's specific involvement is provided.
- Xiaomi
小米 - The article mentions Xiaomi as one of the key brands cooperating with Meituan Flash Purchase (Meituan Shangou), Meituan’s instant retail platform. Xiaomi is listed among other major brands such as Apple, Huawei, Midea, Walmart, Decathlon, and MUJI, participating in the expansion of Meituan’s category offerings through branded flash warehouses and instant delivery services. No further details about Xiaomi's business or strategy are provided.
- Midea
美的 - According to the article, Midea is one of the well-known brands that collaborates with Meituan Flash Purchase (Meituan Shanggou) to provide goods in the instant retail market. Meituan has partnered with over 570 brand merchants, including Midea, to expand its product selection and meet diverse consumer needs within the 30-minute delivery ecosystem.
- Decathlon
迪卡侬 - According to the article, Decathlon is mentioned as one of the brands that have partnered with Meituan Flash Delivery ("美团闪购") in its efforts to expand supply for instant retail. Meituan Flash Delivery has collaborated with major brands such as Apple, Huawei, Xiaomi, Midea, Walmart, Decathlon, and MUJI to strengthen its product offerings and support its business growth in the instant retail sector.
- MUJI
无印良品 - According to the article, MUJI (无印良品) is mentioned as one of the brands collaborating with Meituan Flash Purchase (美团闪购) in the instant retail sector. Meituan Flash Purchase has formed partnerships with various well-known brands, including MUJI, to increase the supply of daily necessities and expand their non-food product offerings delivered within 30 minutes.
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