The commercial war has officially escalated, after JD enters the takeout business.
In response to JD.com’s splashy entry into their duopolized takeout delivery game, Meituan—the undisputed heavyweight of that space—is fighting back in the only language consumers care about: massive coupons.
My friend pulled 23.5RMB off a 20 meal?
On average, a typical order runs around ¥48, so Meituan is basically slicing half off the bill just to keep people in its ecosystem. So when JD is throwing invester’s cash at new users, Meituan bleeds too.
But not all coupons are created equal… MeiTuan and JD are using coupons to do price discrimination using big data and in-transparent algorithms . A friend of mine, who eats out far less and is perhaps more “valuable” to win over, got a stack of high-value discounts (the upper image is from him). Meanwhile, I—clearly identified by the algorithm as a price-insensitive people—got very small discounts.
I get far less (10 maximum)
It’s algorithmic pricing in full swing. An eater’s history, habits and willingness to pay have become inputs for a black box that decides how good of a deal you deserve. Welcome to the gamified, opaque world of individualized incentives, where loyalty is punished and casuals are pampered.
Sitting in the middle of a food fight waged by coupons and calculated generosity is exciting, yet mildly infuriating, and somewhat worrisome—it’s not necessarily leading to a better future.