ChinaTravelNews, Ritesh Gupta – Meituan has highlighted that its content production capabilities and various formats, including live streaming, has boosted transactions on its platform.
Sharing its quarterly results, the company stated that throughout 2023 the team focused on refining its ability in promoting “value-for-money mega-hit products” and strengthened its video content offerings.
As for its business divisions, Meituan said as it proactively captured the offline consumption rebound, and GTV of its in-store, hotel and travel businesses increased by over 100% year-over-year in 2023.
The year-over-year growths of annual transacting users and annual active merchants exceeded 30% and 60%, respectively.
“Transaction scale from live streaming increased rapidly in 2023 with daily live streaming sessions exceeding 10000 in December,” said the spokesperson, during Q4 earnings call. “…we are glad to see consumers are increasingly waiting to watch live streaming and place orders on our platform. Both Special Deals sessions and live streaming events help further solidify consumer mindshare of Everyday Low Price.”
Hotel GTV boosted by marketing capabilities
For hotel and travel businesses, the company stated that it managed to capitalize on what it described as a “strong industry rebound”.
This rise in demand was leveraged by its “expertise in leisure travel and competitive advantage in the domestic market,” stated the team.
Meituan’s domestic hotel GTV increased by over 100% year-over-year in 2023. If on one hand, the focus was on improving upon its platform supply, on the other, the plan was to bank on content and tools such as live streaming capabilities to help travel shopper make informed decisions.
Meituan stated that in addition to live streaming, its shelf-based model aided hotel merchants in augmenting operational efficiency, acquiring user traffic, and sell “mega-hit products”.
Specific to the category, Meituan said it iterated the list of Hotel+X products and leveraged its positioning in in-store dining to offer more diversified bundle deals.
"...our expanded effort in marketing and promotions led to record high reservation volume during holiday seasons in 2023. In addition, we further strengthened our presence in the high-star domain, and deepened merchant collaborations through joint marketing events and joint membership programs with high-star hotels,” stated the company. One of the tie-ups that stood last year in case of hotels was the “Must-Stay List for 2023”, featuring a selection of over 900 hotels starting in August. There were similar initiatives in other categories, too. For instance, Meituan’s initiatives in high order value products, such as Shen Qiang Shou (“神搶手”), Meal For One (“一人食”) and Must-Order List, and they helped the company in improving two key competences - product display and content production.
In terms of content, the team stated that cumulatively various formats, including graphics, texts, videos and live streaming, pave the way for a “vibrant content ecosystem”. Also, Meituan chose to upgrade and simplify its membership program for consumers and merchants alike.
Meituan also highlighted that considering its expertise in offering local services, it helped merchants in availing digital assets like user reviews and transaction data to further improve their operations.
The same also enables consumers make consumption decisions more easily, stated the company.
Revenue generation
Revenues decreased by 3.6% to RMB 73.7 billion in Q4 of 2023 from RMB 76.5 billion for Q3 of 2023. The decrease was primarily due to the seasonality of the company’s businesses.
Revenues from the core local commerce segment decreased by 4.4% to RMB55.1 billion in
Q4 from RMB57.7 billion for Q3 of 2023. The revenue decrease was primarily due to the decrease in the number of food delivery business transactions and the decreased GTV of Meituan’s in-store, hotel and travel businesses resulting from seasonality impact.
The company shared that revenues from the core local commerce segment increased by 28.7% to RMB 206.9 billion in 2023 from RMB160.8 billion in 2022. The revenue growth in delivery services and commission was mainly due to the increase in the number of on-demand delivery transactions and GTV of its in-store, hotel and travel businesses.
