Meituan's annual general meeting of shareholders was held on schedule at the company's exhibition center in Beijing's Wangjing area on the afternoon of June 26.

Following the initial formalities of the shareholder meeting, the session proceeded to the Q&A segment where shareholders engaged with Meituan's management team.

Attendees indicated that Wang Xing was exceptionally forthright during this meeting.

The first shareholder question concerned the stock price. On January 2, 2026, Meituan's Hong Kong stock price was approximately HK$102.2 per share, with a total market capitalization of about HK$625 billion. By June 26, the latest figures showed the stock price at around HK$64.25 per share, with a market cap of approximately HK$396.7 billion.

In response, Wang Xing stated that the company's stock performance over the past few years had been unsatisfactory, and he felt a profound sense of responsibility. As the founder and CEO, he must bear this responsibility. He emphasized that since the company's founding, he has not sold a single share of Meituan stock and has no plans to do so in the future. He also noted that in 2021, he donated 10% of his personal holdings to a foundation—an irreversible, non-sellable philanthropic act.

The subsequent Q&A session was primarily structured around four key areas: a review of 2025, the two biggest regrets since listing, plans to boost the stock price, and the company's future strategy. The following analysis synthesizes the main points from these discussions, subsequent exchanges with Wang Xing and the CFO, and long-term observations of the company.

Initial Observations

Wang Xing is a CEO within the internet circle known for his considerable personal charisma. He is transparent and straightforward with friends and delegates authority to capable subordinates. His character is sincere, low-key, and honest, rarely employing manipulation or staged performances. He treats talented individuals with respect and shares profits generously with core personnel, which has helped him gather a loyal and effective team. Wang Xing possesses traits of an idealistic poet, valuing old friendships and connecting genuinely with strangers.

The actions of Meituan as a company and Wang Xing's personal actions should not be conflated. It is commendable that during a period of stock price pressure, he stated "the responsibility lies with me." Historically, most of Meituan's core executives have maintained positive, long-term working relationships with Wang Xing.

Throughout its history, Meituan has faced intense competition and stock price volatility on multiple occasions and has demonstrated resilience.

The fierce competition in 2025 did not just impact the stock price; it more significantly delayed the progress of Meituan's AI initiatives and overseas expansion.

Review of 2025

Wang Xing's assessment was that the pressure was significant, but the fundamentals remained solid. He mentioned irrational competition within the industry, stating that Meituan withstood the pressure and ensured continued growth in its core businesses—food delivery, in-store services, and instant retail. He specifically highlighted that despite the ongoing competition, Meituan's cash flow is healthy and its cash reserves are ample.

Concurrently, Wang Xing candidly admitted the stock had "fallen severely," declining over 85% from its peak, which he believed required deep reflection.

Later in the Q&A, Wang Xing added that he views Meituan's core competitive moats as fourfold: its instant delivery network, merchant coverage, fulfillment capabilities, and AI technology. He also pointed out that competition comes not only from JD.com and Alibaba but also from platforms like Douyin, with the battleground spanning multiple dimensions including food delivery, instant retail, and local services.

An observation worth noting is that the essence of irrational industry competition may stem precisely from insufficient moats. If barriers were high enough to deter competitors, such intense competition would likely not occur.

In the 2025 battles over food delivery and instant retail, Meituan's key weapon was ultimately "efficiency," with Unit Economics (UE, understood as profit per order) being a critical metric. Wang Xing's four advantages—instant delivery network, merchant coverage, fulfillment, and AI tech—are all key factors influencing efficiency and, consequently, UE.

Market consensus suggests that by Q1 2026, Meituan's UE was nearing breakeven, with the instant retail segment performing slightly better than pure food delivery. Overall, Meituan's UE performance was superior to some competitors, primarily due to higher fulfillment efficiency and better labor reuse rates.

However, whether this constitutes an absolute moat is debatable. A former Meituan executive once suggested that with sustained investment in new systems based on technologies like AI, it would take roughly "three years" to bridge such gaps. In other words, if competitors continue to invest and optimize, this UE differential could likely be closed. Considering competitors are now scaling back growth expectations and focusing more on ROI, the catch-up speed might be faster.

This implies that if the competitive landscape remains as intense as in 2025, with rivals maintaining their investment, Meituan's efficiency advantage might gradually diminish.

Fortunately for Meituan, competitors' investment intensity is likely waning due to industry policy influences and internal strategic shifts among rivals.

In essence, the "irrational industry competition" Wang Xing referred to may not be the most crucial footnote for the "intense 2025." The deeper underlying issue is that businesses like food delivery, instant retail, and local services may need to find new moats beyond just efficiency, merchant supply, and delivery algorithms. More plainly, the volatility in Meituan's 2025 stock price essentially reflected the market's perception of the "invasibility" of these sectors.

Top Two Regrets Since Listing

In this segment, Wang Xing straightforwardly identified "overseas expansion and Meituan Youxuan (preferred selection)" as the two biggest regrets. Regarding overseas expansion, he felt it started too late, missing the window of rapid penetration growth for food delivery overseas. For Meituan Youxuan, he acknowledged it was attempted but did not succeed.

Wang Xing also highlighted the lesson from Meituan Youxuan: one cannot rely solely on seller bidding (the core model of Youxuan) but must deeply integrate into the supply chain to achieve ultimate cost-effectiveness.

An analysis suggests Wang Xing's historical evaluation of Youxuan might be overly harsh. In its historical context, Meituan Youxuan played a critical tactical role in user acquisition and penetration into lower-tier markets. For about two years, it was Meituan's largest source of new users. Similar dynamics occurred with JD.com's Jingxi business and Alibaba's initiatives like Taote and Taocaicai at the time. Facing slowing user growth from core businesses and pandemic impacts, the group-buying model became a key weapon for these giants to tap into third- to sixth-tier cities. From that perspective, the Youxuan business was a reasonable choice, with the main variance being the level of investment. Meituan's possible regret might be the excessively high investment during that cycle and ultimately encountering a formidable competitor like Duoduo Maicai.

The insight Wang Xing mentioned is precisely the inspiration for Meituan's current "Happy Monkey" business. However, the current market situation sees JD.com, Alibaba, and Meituan all pursuing similar hard-discount supermarket models. This trend bears resemblance to the previous "lower-tier group-buying wave" and may not be a universal solution for these internet giants.

Another point for reflection from the Youxuan experience could be "talent and resource reuse across different scenarios." To some extent, Pinduoduo's Temu business partly originated from its group-buying operations. However, looking at the development trajectories of Meituan's overseas and group-buying businesses, the reuse of talent and resources between them has been limited. This may not be a matter of corporate DNA or decision-making but rather one of "imagination."

Plans to Boost the Stock Price and Future Strategy

Wang Xing spent considerable time addressing the stock price. Summarizing his (and the CFO's) stance, there were four key points: focus on improving company operations and solidifying the business; advocate for industry rationality; highlight Meituan's valuable investments in companies like Zhipu AI, Li Auto, and Unitree Robotics, indicating plans to actively divest at appropriate times to return cash to the core business or shareholders; and initiate a share buyback program. Wang Xing was quite candid in this part.

Regarding the company's future strategy, Wang Xing clearly outlined four main directions: for food delivery, deepen efficiency and be AI-driven; for instant retail, expand into all categories and penetrate the supply chain; for overseas expansion, extend the Middle East model to more countries and regions; and for AI, position it as Meituan's biggest growth engine over the next 3-5 years. This aligns closely with his previous descriptions in earnings calls, where he sometimes summarized it as "instant retail, overseas, AI."

An analysis suggests Meituan may need to seize certain key opportunities. In the food delivery and instant retail battlefield, the competitive front lines are nearing a "ceasefire line," with market share approaching a 50/50 split. It is likely that in the second half of 2026, market share fluctuations will be limited to back-and-forth struggles within a 15% range. The upcoming July-September period, typically the peak season for food delivery, might see a wave of "restrained offensives" from both sides, but it is unlikely to fundamentally alter or reverse the overall situation.

Under these circumstances, participants are likely shifting focus from expanding scale to consolidating captured territory—continuing to optimize UE. Meituan's strategy involves large-scale deployment of AI, drones, and autonomous vehicles. Results from the first half of 2026 show AI has indeed brought efficiency gains, but the potential remains vast. This is not just a test of AI capability itself but also of business transformation based on AI. Can AI-driven efficiency gains become a sustainable moat?

Regarding overseas expansion, there is skepticism about whether Meituan's Middle East model can be replicated in other regions. The experiences of JD.com and Alibaba in overseas markets over recent years show significant differences between countries. For Meituan, the Middle East model is unlikely to be fully replicated in markets like Brazil in the short term. This again highlights the need for "imagination." Meituan may require more imaginative and creative ideas to explore overseas markets, rather than merely transplanting existing business models.

AI is currently a strategic priority within Meituan, with Wang Xing personally overseeing related businesses in recent years. Compared to other units, Meituan's AI efforts appear to have considerable imagination and freedom, with Wang Xing likely intentionally maintaining flexibility within the team. However, a crucial decision may need to be made within the next year: either decisively abandon the notion of a super AI portal and focus on using AI as a background enhancement for the main app, or bet on success by creating one or two entirely new, independent AI portals (even consumer-facing ones) to open up new growth avenues for Meituan. The question remains: outside of Meituan, who will create the AI portal, and where will it first emerge?

Finally, the announcement regarding the potential sale of quality investment holdings warrants discussion. Based on the latest stock prices, the approximate market value of some of Meituan's key holdings is as follows: GoodMe around HK$3.6-4 billion, Zhipu AI around HK$35-36 billion, and Mixue Bingcheng around HK$3.5-4 billion. At the shareholder meeting, company representatives indicated that the total value of Meituan's holdings in innovative tech companies (both listed and unlisted) exceeds 65 billion yuan. However, this seemingly large sum is not easily accessible. Lock-up periods for some leading AI companies held by Meituan expire in early 2027. Holdings in certain consumer brands help ensure alignment during the food delivery competition. For some automotive brands, Meituan's significant stakes mean selling could have broader implications. Furthermore, some AI and robotics companies are part of Meituan's broader "AI ecosystem" strategy from years ago. Without stock price pressure, Meituan would likely hold these stocks long-term to build its AI ecosystem. This situation echoes the events of 2025: the sudden food delivery war delayed Meituan's AI and overseas progress. Without that conflict, Meituan might have evolved further in these two strategic directions by now.