Meal Delivery Firms Get Up to $50,000 Subsidy! Meituan Launches "Anti-Collusion" Strategy, How Will Taobao and JD.com Respond?

The meal delivery industry has moved beyond the "low-price wars" and is now taking a substantive step towards "anti-collusion."

On August 5, Meituan announced that it will officially launch its mid-to-small-scale merchant development support plan, providing subsidies to support more meal delivery small shops in achieving stable growth. Meituan expects that by the end of this year, its subsidy program will cover over 100,000 meal delivery small shops, with a maximum single-store subsidy of $50,000.

Just four days prior (August 1), Meituan, Ele.me, and JD.com, three major meal delivery platforms, issued separate statements announcing their commitment to resist vicious subsidies, eliminate unfair competition behaviors, regulate promotional activities, and push the industry towards "quality-based" and "service-based" competitions that benefit both merchants and users.

Now, Meituan is taking the lead in providing greater support to mid-to-small-scale merchants, sending a signal that the industry competition logic is shifting from "traffic price wars" towards "merchant value wars."

However, faced with Meituan's move to occupy the high ground of "quality-based" competitions, Taobao's flash sale and JD.com's "qualityization" store layouts are quietly building their own moats, a new wave of competition centered on merchant ecosystems and user experiences.

Meituan's Subsidy Program for Single Stores Reaches Up to $50,000

Meituan acknowledged that the industry's low-price, disordered competition has resulted in widespread shocks affecting some meal delivery merchants, particularly mid-to-small-scale ones.

According to data released by Meituan, as of July, its subsidy program had covered over 300,000 meal delivery merchants, with nearly half reporting a significant increase in orders and three-quarters seeing a noticeable boost in revenue.

Meituan stated that it will continue to inject funds and resources into the market, striving to help meal delivery merchants avoid the harm caused by industry low-price, disordered competition, and enabling more merchants to focus on products and services, ultimately achieving long-term growth.

Daily Economic News, internet analyst Zhuang Shuai analyzed that Meituan's latest move will undoubtedly push other platforms to follow suit in increasing their support for merchants, but it will also convey a strong message about Meituan's determination to compete fiercely against Alibaba and JD.com.

From "Price Wars" to "Merchant Value Wars" - How Will Taobao and JD.com Respond?

The truce signed by the meal delivery platforms is still in its early stages, but a new round of industry reshaping has already begun.