Cofounder, Meituan
Search every verified Edward Long interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. In a November 2017 interview, Meituan Dianping senior vice president Shaohui Chen discussed the company's market position, expansion plans, and business strategy. Chen stated that the company held a 60% market share in food delivery and was growing month by month, attributing this to a platform strategy that offers services beyond delivery, including restaurant bookings, movie tickets, and hotel reservations. He noted that the company had over 290 million active consumers and four million active merchants, and that the industries it operates in still had low online penetration rates. Chen also mentioned that Meituan was running ten to fifteen pilot projects, including a car-hailing business, describing it as important for the company to be sensitive to market trends and innovate on its platform. Regarding an initial public offering, Chen said that an IPO was "a natural result of business growth" and that the company had no timetable, but was managing itself like a public company due to having a large portion of public shareholders. On the topic of payment services, Chen stated that Meituan was not competing in the payment market but had its own payment solutions while maintaining an open strategy with third-party players. He also addressed content quality, saying it was a top priority and that the company had invested heavily in technology and offline resources to optimize content.
“I think there are lucky things that the market is still so big and still so early in the online penetration race.”
“We have over two hundred and ninety million active consumers that push through our platforms and connect to over four million active merchants.”
“We have ten or fifteen pilot projects including the car-hailing business; it's very important for companies like us as a disruptive innovator to be sensitive to growing market trends and make innovations on our platform.”
“We cover about five times bigger consumer base in [leisure] most of whom are leisure travelers, and we have much more offerings for these travelers — movie tickets, restaurants and hotel booking — which can really enclose the lifecycle of the consumers.”
Nov.12 -- Shaohui Chen, senior vice president at Meituan Dianping, discusses his expansion plans, their travel business, merging with Alibaba and the payment market. He speaks on "Bloomberg Markets: Asia" from the JPMorgan Global TMT Conference in Hong Kong.
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