From Traffic Platform to Ecosystem Collaboration: Internet Giants Reshape the Food Market

As the driving forces of cost and efficiency, a kitchen revolution has already broken out. Courtesy of the companies

Securities Times reporter Wu Shoulong Wu Shun Chen Xiaochang

At the JD.com self-owned restaurant "Qingqian Little Kitchen" in Beijing, chef Li is following a standardized process to prepare Kung Pao chicken, with the sounds of pots and pans clanging as each portion of 10 yuan's worth of rice bowls is quickly packaged and waiting for delivery. At the same time, in the Meituan Wandering Food Court, entrepreneur Zhang has just completed a cleaning after lunch and recorded the scene on "Food Safety Diary" and uploaded it to the Meituan food delivery APP, with more than 1,000 users clicking on it within an hour.

These two seemingly ordinary scenarios outline the new contours of internet giants reshaping the food industry.

Giant players take the stage

On July 22, JD.com's Qingqian Little Kitchen achieved a "boom" on its first day of operation, with many orders and feedback from customers that the taste is good and the price is reasonable. The average daily order volume exceeded 1,000, with a repeat rate of over 220% higher than the industry average, according to Liu Bin, head of JD.com's Qingqian Little Kitchen.

Behind this performance is JD.com's investment of over 10 billion yuan in building its "joint kitchen + food partner" model. In June, JD.com founder and chairman Liu Qiangdong mentioned that JD.com's food delivery would soon launch a completely different business model from Meituan. Subsequently, JD.com launched the Qingqian Little Kitchen project and recruitment plan for food partners, planning to invest over 100 billion yuan in three years to build more than 10,000 Qingqian Little Kitchens across the country.

Meituan's digital big screen displays real-time data on multiple stores' operations. Meituan began building Wandering Food Court in 2024, opening it up to all types of food businesses that meet its food safety standards and operate transparently and with standardization.

"We're not building a kitchen, but a foundation for exploring the construction of trusted food delivery infrastructure for the catering industry." According to Meituan's written response to Securities Times reporter.

Regardless of whether it's JD.com's Qingqian Little Kitchen or Meituan's Wandering Food Court, both models have led traditional food delivery companies to a new era.