The Big Picture

Meituan, the “Amazon for local services”

  • China
  • 5 min read
  • Oct 17, 2018
  • By Irene Wang and Wang Xiao'e

©Meituan Dianping

 Now worth over US$50 billion, the company has always focused on one end-goal: help consumers eat better, live better

When Apple CEO Tim Cook ate wonton at a Shanghai restaurant last December, his Chinese dining companion taught Cook how to order and pay with a smartphone. By then, paying by smartphone was common practice in China, but the means did not yet exist in the US. Cook sang the praises of this “great innovation” on Weibo, the Chinese social media.
The man who showed Cook how indispensable the smartphone could be was none other than Wang Xing, CEO of Meituan-Dianping, one of China's most popular apps. Launched in 2010 as a copy of US group-buying business Groupon, Meituan has since ec...

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