Meituan steps up livestreaming push as sales nearly quadruple in three months: report · TechNode

Meals supply big Meituan has proven its skill to defend its moat benefit in native providers amid a problem from ByteDance-owned TikTok sibling Douyin, with the corporate attaining RMB 2 billion single-month livestreaming gross sales this October, up from the lower than RMB 600 million recorded in July when it formally launched its in-app livestream characteristic, native media outlet 36Kr cited a number of sources as saying in a Monday report.

Why it issues: Meituan, a newcomer to the livestreaming area, is using a high-subsidy technique inside livestream rooms to draw each prospects and retailers. Regardless of the sturdy progress momentum indicated by gross sales figures, the corporate’s revenue margin has seen a decline for 2 consecutive quarters.

Particulars: Livestreams performed by Meituan itself are the principle focus of the newly launched operate, the place hosts are sourced from exterior multi-channel community (MCN) corporations and generate greater than 70% of dwell gross merchandise quantity (GMV), in line with the 36Kr report. Nonetheless, this steadiness is shifting as small- and medium-sized retailers movement in to promote vouchers through impartial livestreams. 

• Round 30% to 40% of orders paid for on livestreams are in the end verified at bodily shops and transformed into the store’s gross sales, one supply was cited as saying within the report. One other supply, a Meituan service supplier, claimed that the general verification charge is about 60%, almost double that of Douyin.
• Shen Quan Jie and Shen Qiang Shou are two main official livestream manufacturers inside Meituan’s meals supply phase, promoting discounted takeout coupons, particularly for well-known or chain eating places. The previous is a month-to-month promotional occasion occurring on the 18th of every month, whereas the latter livestreams for 12 hours each day, primarily concentrating on customers in China’s first-tier cities.
• Meituan’s Hong Kong-traded shares have slumped over 50% this yr, and the corporate’s inventory skilled its largest single-day decline in over a yr final Tuesday after executives warned of a slowdown in income progress for its core meals supply enterprise within the fourth quarter.

Context: Meituan has elevated its advertising bills this yr in an try to withstand TikTok sister app Douyin’s push into the native life providers sector, spending RMB 16.9 billion within the final quarter, a 62.5% improve from the primary quarter. In the meantime, the working margin of its core native enterprise has continued to say no over the past two quarters, dropping beneath 20% within the three months from July to September to 17.5%.

• Brief video app Douyin first took a step into the native providers house with meals supply trials two years in the past. It has now expanded its attain to incorporate every thing from sightseeing tickets and leisure occasions to parent-child actions. Native media outlet LatePost beforehand reported that these providers generated over RMB 100 billion in gross sales for Douyin within the first half of 2023.

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