About Edward Long
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.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Edward Long's recent appearances.
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Transcript (20 segments)
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Interviewer0:10
With the likes of tech giants like Alibaba and Tencent, how does a second-tier player like Meituan fit in?
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Edward Long0:17
I think there are lucky things that the market is still so big and still so early in the online penetration race. The service industry we are operating in still has only 5% online penetration rate, compared to Alibaba's physical commerce, which is only 20% online penetration rate. And we are seeing the trend catch up for the several industries we operate in. We have over 290 million active consumers that push through our platform and connect to over 4 million active merchants. These phenomenal numbers will provide a strong foundation for a platform like us.
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Interviewer1:12
What about new businesses? Are there new ventures for you?
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Edward Long1:16
We still have 10 or 15 pilot projects, including the car-hailing business and information within the group. We think it's very important for a company like us, as a disruptive innovator in this space, to be very sensitive to the growing trend of the market and able to make innovations on our platform. We not only transfer existing business models online in categories, but we continue to see from a consumer perspective what other services we can add to the platform to increase the thickness for consumers and merchants. That's how we think about how we should expand into new businesses.
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Interviewer1:55
What about after their merger? How do you differentiate?
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Edward Long2:10
We have a very differentiated strategy here. We cover about 5 times bigger consumer base, most of whom are later-stage leisure travelers, compared to business travelers or Ctrip. Also, we have a much broader offering for these travelers. When they go out to have fun and entertainment, they can enjoy movie tickets, restaurant businesses, and also the hotel booking business that we are able to offer. That really encompasses the whole lifecycle of the consumers.
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Interviewer2:45
Priceline is one of your backers. What kind of opportunities are there to collaborate?
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Edward Long2:48
China stands for their incremental business for the whole global travel business, and one game plan is actually to bring the most value.
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Interviewer3:11
Your most viable business is food delivery right now. Is it just time to bury the hatchet and maybe merge with Alibaba's Ele.me?
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Edward Long3:17
We already have 60% market share today and are still growing our market share month by month. The main reason is we stick to our platform strategy. Consumers come to our platform not just for the delivery; they can come for restaurants, movie tickets, or other local services. When they cross-purchase across other categories, they become more sticky on our platform compared to vertical players. That's really the power of the platform we are building.
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Interviewer3:46
How did you beat out the likes of Baidu and Meituan? Given that Baidu has a much bigger cash position than you, and they also have strength when it comes to AI.
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Edward Long3:54
I think this is the beauty of innovation. The young generation...
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Interviewer4:10
Traditional Baidu is purely online technology, but we have people running across the whole country serving their merchants and consumers.
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Edward Long4:20
Today we have over 2 million active riders each day to help us deliver those orders.
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Interviewer4:27
Is payments your next move? Tencent and Alibaba both have good payment networks. Are you in the market to buy?
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Edward Long4:34
We are not really in the payments market. Payment is a very important step of our closed-loop to protect customer data. We work alongside Tencent and other third-party payment solutions because consumers come to us for transactions, and payment is just the last step. We try to fit them, and we have our own payment solutions, but we think it's more collaborative.
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Interviewer5:11
What about quality and safety issues on your platform? What's the strategy to fix it?
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Edward Long5:15
Safety is always a number one priority. We'll make sure the quality and content really get to a standard that we are emphasizing. We have invested heavily on the technology side and offline side to continue to optimize content.
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Interviewer5:34
Last question: IPO plans. Should we expect an IPO soon?
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Edward Long5:41
IPO is more of a natural result of business growth. We don't have a timetable, but we are managing the company more like a public company because we have a big portion of public shareholders as well.
