In the first half of this year, JD.com, Meituan, and Ele.me engaged in an intense food delivery subsidy war across their platforms.
The battle drew widespread attention, prompting the State Administration for Market Regulation to summon platform representatives and demand an end to vicious competition. Restaurant associations in multiple regions called for a halt to "involution," while merchants complained of "having orders but no profits." Platforms responded by expressing opposition to "involution" and emphasizing fair competition and healthy industry development.
With JD.com, Meituan, and Alibaba releasing their second-quarter earnings reports throughout August, the half-year battle report of this food delivery war has finally emerged.
**Burning Cash for Market Share May Not Be Sustainable**
Half-year results show that while all three platforms achieved record-high monthly active users, marketing expenses increased significantly and profits declined substantially.
JD.com's quarterly active users and shopping frequency grew by over 40% year-over-year; Meituan App's monthly active users exceeded 500 million, with annual transaction frequency per user reaching historic highs; Alibaba's App monthly active users grew 25% year-over-year in the first three weeks of August.
JD.com's net profit attributable to ordinary shareholders was 6.2 billion RMB in Q2 2025, down over 50% year-over-year; Meituan's adjusted net profit was 1.49 billion RMB in Q2 2025, down 89% year-over-year; Alibaba's non-GAAP net profit was 33.51 billion RMB in Q2 2025, down 18% year-over-year. However, since Taobao Instant launched large-scale subsidies only in July, Alibaba's food delivery-related business impact on profits was not significant in the first half.
JD.com's marketing expenses reached 27 billion RMB in Q2 2025, up 127.6%; Meituan's marketing expenses were 22.5 billion RMB in Q2 2025, up 51.8%; Alibaba's sales and marketing expenses as a percentage increased by 21.3% for the three months ended June 30, 2025.
**Platform CEOs Summarize First Half Food Delivery Performance**
JD.com Group CEO Xu Ran stated that JD's food delivery business achieved healthy development this quarter, making steady progress not only in order volume growth, merchant expansion, and full-time delivery driver recruitment, but more importantly, forming effective synergies with JD Retail and other existing businesses, successfully achieving the company's initial strategic objectives.
Meituan CEO Wang Xing noted that Meituan has grown through competition and achieved its current leading position through continuous competition. As competition in the food delivery market continues to intensify, Meituan will continue to defend its market position. Meituan is actively positioning itself on both merchant and delivery driver fronts. On the merchant side, Meituan continues implementing "anti-involution" measures, supporting merchant development through cash subsidies and model innovation. Regarding delivery driver benefits, pension insurance subsidies for drivers will cover the entire country by year-end, with over one million drivers expected to benefit.
Alibaba CEO Wu Yongming stated that Alibaba has heavily invested in instant retail business, rapidly achieving phased results and winning consumer mindshare. Through integrating consumer platforms, significant synergistic effects have been generated, driving monthly active consumers and daily order volumes to new highs. In July this year, 395 non-food brand merchants on Taobao Instant achieved monthly transaction volumes exceeding one million RMB, with 66 brands surpassing ten million RMB.
As of the evening of August 29, secondary market performance showed JD.com and Meituan stock prices both declined following their earnings releases. Since Alibaba's food delivery-related business impact on profits was not significant in the first half, and benefiting from AI-related product revenue achieving triple-digit year-over-year growth for eight consecutive quarters, Alibaba's stock price rose 12.9% after its earnings release.