Under fierce competition, Meituan handed over its first quarterly loss report card in nearly three years. In the third quarter of 2025 (as of September 30), Meituan:
revenue was 95.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of only 2%, lower than the market expectation of 97.47 billion yuan; adjusted net loss of 16 billion yuan, far exceeding expectations of 13.96 billion yuan - compared with a profit of 12.8 billion yuan in the same period last year.
The loss mainly came from the core business "local business" (including takeaway, in-store, hospitality, etc.): the sector turned from profit to loss, with an operating loss of 14.1 billion yuan, compared with a profit of 14.6 billion yuan in the same period last year.
Meituan admitted that the recent competition in the industry has "continued to be fierce", and warned that the core business and the company as a whole are likely to continue to lose money in the fourth quarter. In order to grab the market, Meituan is "burning money for shares", and short-term profits give way to long-term competition.
Core business "blood loss": Meituan's local business has changed from profit to loss
As Meituan's "ballast stone", core local businesses (mainly including takeaway, in-store, wine and tourism, etc.) suffered a heavy blow in the third quarter of 2025:
revenue decreased by 2.8% year-on-year to 67.4 billion yuan; operating profit margin plummeted to -20.9% from 21% in the same period last year; The loss in a single quarter was 14.1 billion yuan, compared with a profit of 14.6 billion yuan in the same period last year.
Why do you lose so much?
Meituan explained: In order to cope with the fierce competition in the takeaway and instant retail markets, the company has significantly adjusted its strategy, which is mainly reflected in two aspects:
Crazy advertising and subsidies: sales and marketing expenses surged 90.9% year-on-year to 34.3 billion yuan; Marketing expenses soared from 19.2% to 35.9% of revenue.
Increase rider subsidies: In order to ensure stable delivery and retain users, Meituan has increased incentives for riders, further driving up costs
How fierce is the competition?
Alibaba and JD.com are entering the takeaway and instant retail markets, each investing billions of yuan to subsidize users and merchants. Meituan bluntly said that the current competition is "still overheated". Affected by this, the overall net profit of Alibaba and JD.com in the third quarter was also cut in half.
Market share is being eroded It is predicted that Meituan's trading share in the instant retail market will decline from 73% in 2024 to 55% in 2027; Alibaba's share will rise from 21% to 40%; JD.com will increase slightly to 6%
But there are also bright spots: users are still growing. Meituan is "exchanging money for time" - it must protect users and the market at any cost, but in the face of the strong attacks of Alibaba and JD.com, the moat is being eroded little by little.
New business is expanding, but it is still "burning money"
In contrast to the significant losses in core local businesses, Meituan's new business segments (mainly including grocery retail and overseas business) continued to grow in the third quarter:
revenue reached 28 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.9%; However, the operating loss also expanded from 1 billion yuan to 1.3 billion yuan, and the loss rate rose slightly to 4.6%.
However, compared with the previous quarter (loss rate of 7.1%), the loss has narrowed significantly, mainly due to the improvement in the operational efficiency of domestic grocery retail businesses (such as "Little Elephant Supermarket" and "Fast Donkey"), which partially offset the cost pressure of overseas expansion.
Overseas layout is accelerating, and Meituan's food delivery platform Keeta is rapidly going global: it has gained a firm foothold in Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia; Recently, it has entered the Middle East markets such as Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates; In October, a pilot project was launched in Brazil; The company is also reportedly evaluating the possibility of entering the Indian market – where local food delivery competition is equally fierce.
But the cost of expansion is not small.
Bloomberg analyst Catherine Lim pointed out that entering the Middle East and other places did push up losses for new businesses. She believes that the market is most concerned about: How long can Meituan bear losses? The company's guidance on "when to stop losses" will directly affect investors' judgment on whether it can really improve in 2026.
To put it simply: Meituan's new business is "running and building", although the growth is eye-catching, but the overseas battlefield spends money like water. It is difficult to make a profit in the short term, and the key is whether efficiency can keep up and whether burning money can be exchanged for real market share.
Costs have risen sharply, but Meituan is still investing heavily in the future
In the third quarter of 2025, Meituan's costs and expenses rose across the board, mainly due to two main reasons: marketing expenses surged: sales and promotion expenses soared by more than 90% year-on-year in response to fierce competition (as mentioned above); Increased R&D investment: R&D expenses reached 6.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 31%, mainly invested in artificial intelligence (AI).
AI has become a strategic focus, and Meituan is making every effort to promote the implementation of AI:
launched the AI tool "LongCat" for merchants to help optimize operations; Launched the user-oriented intelligent life assistant "Xiaomei" App to improve the service experience. The goal is to deeply integrate AI into the whole chain from merchants to users.
There is still money on hand, and despite spending a lot of money, Meituan's "family foundation" is still thick:
In November 2025 (after the earnings season), the company successfully issued more than US$2 billion and RMB7 billion of senior notes; As of the end of the third quarter, the total cash and short-term wealth management on the account was about 141.3 billion yuan, with abundant funds and strong anti-risk ability.
Jingtai view: Meituan's loss today is not because no one orders takeaway, but because it is fighting three battles at the same time: guarding takeaway, grabbing instant retail, and expanding globally. This is very similar to Didi vs Kuai in 2018, or Mobike vs ofo in 2016 - the last one who survived was not the most profitable, but the one who could carry it the most.
Fortunately, Meituan still has 141.3 billion cash in its hands, which is equivalent to burning 150 million yuan a day, and it can also burn for two and a half years. Don't just look at quarterly profits, it depends on whether it can use today's "strategic blood loss" in exchange for tomorrow's "ecological monopoly".
