I like to think about how to spend money well, with joy, efficiency, and ideally—being from Guangzhou which is literally the most delicious region in China, I take food seriously. Lately, there’s been an interesting bit of culinary gossip about the tech giants behind our takeout orders.
I’ve written before about Meituan, the heavyweight in China’s food-delivery duopoly—a platform that has perfected the dark art of rent-seeking. It squeezes the life (and margin) out of both the restaurants and the couriers. The folks ferrying my salad across the city are pulling 10 to 14-hour days for around 6000 RMB a month. Meanwhile, restaurants are bleeding out 30% of their earnings just to be listed. Efficiency is a beautiful thing—until it starts to look like feudalism in a scooter helmet.
Now the stage enters JD.com, the slightly more elegant cousin of Amazon in China, who decided to crash the takeout dinner party. JD and Meituan lock horns in food delivery war. JD used to not do takeouts but now it enters the market, promising a more generous model—for both consumers and vendors.
Of course, it’s still early days for this noble disruption. JD is currently throwing money at the market like it’s trying to bury it in startup cash. Their billionaire founder even got himself photographed delivering food… JD.com’s billionaire founder delivers food in publicity stunt to challenge Meituan.
I like the gossip, but as a consumer, I also just want better and easier access to food, and prices that don’t make me feel like I’m subsidizing a shareholder’s third yacht… Still, the chaos of market disruption often brings momentary perks before it converges to equilibrium—like artisan coffee mysteriously priced at 4 RMB. Don’t ask why.
Word of caution: whenever two giants wrestle in the market arena, there’s often a quiet third party that ends up getting sat on. So, pour one out for Ele.me, Alibaba’s quieter, slightly forgotten food delivery cousin. If history’s anything to go by, they might want to start brushing up their resume.