Meituan Dianping Claims Leadership as Largest Domestic Hotel Site in China
Skift Take
Meituan has an advantage in travel over some of its competitors because it is a platform company, offering an extensive array of retail services, although food delivery is its core business. The Chinese hotel market is clearly in flux with Meituan and, to a lesser extent, Alibaba, nipping at Ctrip's heels.
Hotels are far more than just a nice-to-have at China's Meituan Dianping.
While food delivery dominates Meituan Dianping's transactions and revenue, as part of its "Food + Platform" strategy the Chinese e-commerce and lifestyle giant now claims to process more domestic hotel-room nights than any of its competitors, including Ctrip.
In reporting its fourth quarter and full-year 2018 results, its second such quarterly exercise since executing an initial public offering, Meituan CFO Shaohui Chen said "we continue to maintain our leading position in terms of domestic room nights." He said the domestic hotel business is profitable.
In 2018, Meituan saw its domestic room nights jump 38.5 percent to 283.9 million.
