On July 5, China’s largest food delivery company, Meituan (美团), began issuing discount coupons, including freebies with offers like “eat for 0 yuan” (0元吃).
The move triggered a huge surge in orders with price conscious consumers, always on the look out for a deal.
Meituan’s app briefly crashed under the pressure of increased traffic, and the topic “Meituan crashed” (美团崩了) quickly began trending online.
Meituan has been locked in a battle with JD, China’s second-largest e-commerce platform, since April this year.
Both online giants are fighting to dominate the booming and highly lucrative "instant retail" (即时零售) market, a sector which according to government data, reached a total size of 650 billion yuan (around $90 billion dollars) in 2023.
Instant retail gives consumers the ability to order “high frequency” (高频) products online, like food and drinks, and receive them within minutes or hours, typically under one hour.
It blends e-commerce with local logistics and relies on proximity-based fulfilment, using nearby supermarkets, convenience stores, restaurants, and warehouses to deliver goods quickly.
Platforms use “front warehouses” (前置仓), or "micro-fulfillment centres", which are small, strategically placed storage facilities located close to residential or commercial areas. They store fast-moving inventory and enable rapid delivery. These are supported by “rear warehouses” (后置仓), larger distribution hubs further from consumers, which hold deeper inventory to regularly replenish the “front” warehouses.
Related
The so-called “great delivery war” (外卖大战) between JD and Meituan began in April. So why the sudden surge in discounting by Meituan?
The July 5 "Crazy Saturday" (疯狂星期六) — named after KFC’s hugely successful marketing campaign, "Crazy Thursdays" (疯狂星期四) — is the latest strike in that battle.
It’s a response to a third player entering the arena: Taobao (淘宝).
Operated by Alibaba, Taobao is China’s largest e-commerce platform. It launched its instant retail platform, Taobao Flash Buy (淘宝闪购), in late April.
Taobao Flash Buy is an upgrade of Alibaba's on-demand retail service, “Taobao Hourly Delivery” (淘宝小时达), and integrates the instant retail supply chains of Alibaba’s delivery company, Eleme (饿了么), its tech-driven supermarket chain, Freshippo (河马), and existing offerings from Taobao and Tmall.
In the words of Alibaba CEO Wu Yongming (吴泳铭):
“This marks a strategic upgrade as Alibaba evolves from an e-commerce platform into a broader consumer platform.”
“这是阿里从电商平台走向大消费平台的战略升级。”
Since its launch, Taobao Flash Buy has been offering heavy, limited-time discounts and subsidised prices. According to the company, by June 23, it had surpassed 60 million daily orders.
On July 2, the platform stepped up its marketing efforts with a 50-billion-yuan (roughly $6.8 billion) subsidy campaign. Many saw this as a direct attack on Meituan’s core business, as one industry expert explains:
“It’s clear that Taobao Flash Buy’s 50 billion yuan subsidy was the trigger for Meituan’s latest campaign.
The competition in food delivery and instant retail has indeed intensified due to Taobao’s entry and investment,”
“很明显，淘宝闪购的500亿补贴是美团这次活动的直接原因，餐饮外卖和即时零售的竞争确实因为淘宝闪购的加入和投入变得更加激烈了。” [1]
Meituan’s massive coupon rollout on “Crazy Saturday,” just three days after its new rival’s big move, is widely seen as a counterstrike. According to the company, by 10:54pm on July 5, Meituan’s instant retail platform had logged over 120 million orders in a single day, more than 100 million of those in food delivery.
By July 7, the newest player in the battle, Taobao Flash Buy, reported over 80 million daily orders, including more than 13 million in non-food categories. The platform also claimed to have surpassed 200 million daily active users.
Since the battle kicked-off in April, the original challenger to Meituan — JD Food Delivery (京东秒送) — has stayed in the fight. With daily orders topping 25 million in June, JD is now partnering with 1.5 million restaurants, and employing over 120,000 full-time delivery drivers.
This three-way clash among China’s internet giants has become so intense that many news articles reached for a well-known idiom to sum it up:
JD Food Delivery now receives over 25 million orders per day on average, capturing over 31% of China’s food delivery market.
In the premium segment, it holds roughly 45% market share, firmly establishing itself as a key contender in the tripartite rivalry with Meituan and Eleme.
京东外卖日均订单量已突破2500万单，占据全国外卖市场超31%的份额，在品质外卖细分领域约有45%的市场占有率，与美团、饿了么共同构建起“三足鼎立”的行业新格局。
Like many idioms used in this context, “tripartite rivalry” has its roots in historical battles between warlords millennia ago.
On the surface, Meituan, JD, and Taobao are competing in food delivery (外卖).
But the real prize is in driving sales in “instant retail”, as one industry insider notes:
“The fight may look like it’s over food delivery, but the real competition is in instant retail.”
争夺的是外卖，竞争的是即时零售。
According to that expert, the competition has entered the stage of “ecosystem-level coordination” (生态协同体系) where Meituan, JD, and Alibaba are competing at the systems level as their business models evolve.
Each platform has its strengths and weaknesses.
Meituan has the edge in high-frequency products and fulfilment capability, but lags behind e-commerce rivals in supply chain integration and non-food products.
JD excels in supply chain operations, but is weaker in high-frequency categories, and content-driven engagement, with limited daily active users.
Alibaba has scale and traffic, a wide range of products, and local fulfilment capacity, but its delivery network is not as extensive as Meituan, and its logistics capabilities are weaker than JD.
They are engaged in an all-out battle for existing market share (存量), and to unlock new growth opportunities (增量) in the intensively competitive, and price sensitive market.
But at what cost for delivery drivers, and small businesses?
As the number of deliveries per day has jumped from 100 million at the start of the year, to over 250 million this month, the government is also asking this question.
At the time of writing, the three platforms had all been “invited for a conversation” (被约谈) with the market regulator about their practices.
So, that’s what we’re exploring this week!
🎧RTM Podcast Preview
This week on the RTM Advanced podcast we explain the meaning of industry terms like “high” and “low” frequency products (低频, 高频).
We also get to grips with terms about competition, originally from sport:
“compete” (比拼 bǐ pīn)
“showdown” (较量 jiào liàng)
“compete for dominance” (角逐 jué zhú)
It’s fantastic!
I learned a lot, and I know you will too! Tune in at 9 minutes where we break down what they mean, how native speakers use them, and how you can use them in real conversations.
Favourite Five
1. 比拼 bǐ pīn
compete, pit against each other
网友们是在比拼薅到了多少“羊毛” - Netizens are competing against one another to see how much free stuff they’ve managed to grab. [1]
2. 商战 shāng zhàn
business rivalry, market battle
这一类的“商战”战绩结算帖子，频见于各社交媒体 - Posts on the results of such business rivalry frequently appear across social media platforms. [1]
Related:
混战 hùn zhàn – chaotic battle
应战 yìng zhàn – respond to a challenge
3. 薅羊毛 hāo yáng máo
take advantage of discounts, exploit promotions
更重要的是，平台的“羊毛”消费者还能薅多久？ - More importantly, how much longer can the platforms continue their promotions? [1]
4. 三足鼎立 sān zú dǐng lì
tripartite rivalry
京东外卖在品质外卖细分领域约有45%的市场占有率，与美团、饿了么共同构建起“三足鼎立”的行业新格局 - In the premium segment, JD holds roughly 45% market share, firmly establishing itself as a key contender in the tripartite rivalry with Meituan and Ele.me.[1]
More: learn more about this historical idiom in tomorrow’s Sinica Phrase of the Week!
5. 偃旗息鼓 yǎn qí xī gǔ
to cease fighting, die down
始于今年4月的外卖大战，本来已经在6月初偃旗息鼓一阵子了 - The food delivery war that began in April had already died down for a while by early June. [1]
💡 Ready to get fluent? 💡
Every RTM post is packed with tools to inspire and help you get your fluency back.
It's designed to fit your busy life, your learning style, and your level—whether you’re “intermediate”, “advanced but rusty”, or “fluent with gaps”.
So, ready to finally get started and wave good-bye to that nagging rusty feeling?
Let’s jump in👇
