Chinese food-delivery giant Meituan is shifting its strategic focus to “retailing plus technology” from “food plus platform” in a marked change of business direction, as China’s biggest on-demand delivery services provider adapts to a shifting business and regulatory environment, reports the South China Morning Post.
Wang Xing, founder and CEO of Meituan, announced the changes in an internal meeting this week. As part of the shift, the Beijing-based company has set up a special five-member team as the uppermost decision-making body for retail business operations, which includes Wang and two senior vice presidents. The other two members are Guo Wanhui, the head of restaurant supply chain service platform Kuailv, and Li Shubin, who is in charge of the Meituan app.
The creation of such a special team can be compared with a phase in the development of Amazon, when founder Jeff Bezos created a D-team in 2008 inside the US e-commerce giant to focus on digital sales.
Meituan’s overhaul comes after a difficult year for the company and Chinese internet platforms in general, after Beijing embarked on a regulatory crackdown. It was fined RMB 3.44 billion ($533 million) by China’s antitrust watchdog, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), earlier this month for forcing merchants to pick its platform exclusively to conduct business.