CNNIC data shows that in 2021, the scale of online takeaway users in mainland China has reached 544 million, an increase of 125 million over December 2020, accounting for 52.7% of the total netizens, and it is an indisputable fact that online takeaway has become the growth driver of the mainland catering industry. During the epidemic period, it is difficult to stabilize the supply of dine-in food, and takeaway plays the advantage of less contact in the door-to-door model, which not only brings a relatively convenient life to users, but also gives the struggling merchants a glimmer of hope.
However, in recent years, the commission rate of the takeaway platform has been quite controversial, a common saying is: "The commission rate of the takeaway platform is too high, a single to give the platform about 20% of the commission, the platform sucks the blood merchants, the more takeaway to do the more money." "Are takeaway rates really that high as 20 percent?
True level of takeaway commission rate: 4.1%
As a leading platform for online takeaway, Meituan for the first time clearly defined the takeaway commission income in the financial report, separating this part of the income from the delivery fee (delivery service income), and restoring the real commission level of the mainland online takeaway industry at the data level.
In 2021, Meituan's revenue was 179.1 billion yuan, an increase of 56% year-on-year, of which takeaway contributed 96.3 billion yuan in revenue, an increase of 45.3% year-on-year. In 2021, the cost of Meituan's takeaway riders was 68.2 billion yuan, an increase of 38% year-on-year, accounting for 71% of its catering takeaway revenue. This means that 70% of all the income obtained by Meituan takeaway is spent on takeaway riders, most of which are paid to riders, in addition to costs such as rider training.
What is the real merchant commission income, that is, the technical service fee? In 2021, meituan takeaway's commission income (technical service fee) through merchants was 28.5 billion yuan, accounting for about 29.6% of the total revenue of 96.3 billion. The commission rate calculation is simple: commission income/platform trading amount. In 2021, meituan's takeaway transaction volume (GMV) was 702.1 billion yuan, which shows that 28.5 billion/702.1 billion is the real commission rate of the takeaway platform, which is about 4.1%.
In the past, people had the impression that the takeaway commission rate was high, and the version of the industry that was more spread was about 20%. Why is there such a misunderstanding? Because the biggest difference between the takeaway platform and the e-commerce, online car and other platforms is that there are more million-level rider teams, they are an important ecological component of the takeaway platform, because the takeaway platform has a team of riders, which leads to its overall trading system is very different.
The transaction of the online ride-hailing platform is easy to understand: the platform charges the user a taxi fee, and then extracts the commission, and the rest is the driver's.
The transaction rules of platform-based e-commerce (Taobao, Tmall) are very clear: the platform charges user commodity fees and logistics costs, after extracting commissions and other fees, the rest is the merchant's, the merchant decides whether to package shipping, no matter what, the logistics service is a third party, the courier and related fees do not need to be paid by the platform, and the money charged by the platform can all be regarded as commissions.
The transaction of the takeaway platform is much more complicated: the user needs to pay for the goods and part of the logistics costs, the merchant can choose to match itself or the platform (most of them choose the platform), and if the platform is matched, the delivery cost is given by the merchant and the user.
In 2021, the number of Meituan takeaway transactions is 14.4 billion, 1P (Meituan delivery) accounts for 67%, 1P orders are 9.648 billion, according to the cost of 68.2 billion yuan of Meituan takeaway riders, the cost of each single rider is about 7 yuan, so that users or merchants alone are too high, and now it is actually a part of the burden of platform users and merchants, and the platform is not enough to subsidize. In 2021, Meituan's catering delivery service revenue from merchants and users was 54.2 billion yuan, while the annual rider delivery cost was 68.2 billion yuan, so the cost of Meituan's direct subsidy to riders reached 14 billion yuan, with an average subsidy of about 1.45 yuan per single subsidy (14 billion / 96.48 singles).
In fact, the earlier the development of takeaway, the higher the proportion of platform subsidies, because at that time, the three ends of users, merchants and riders have not yet been fully developed, whether it is user habits, merchant supply or rider strength, the platform must be cultivated through subsidies.
In the early stage of takeaway development, the structure of the fee charged by the platform to the merchant is not clear, the delivery fee, commission and other fees are put together to cause the merchant to calculate the account, the takeaway commission rate is not clear, many merchants based on the platform charges (including delivery fees) directly calculated out of the number of 20%.
In May 2021, Meituan takeaway launched the reform of rate transparency, completely separating the technical service fee (commission) and the performance service fee, the former has a fixed rate, mainly including business information display services, transaction services, business services and customer service services, IT operation and maintenance and other service fees; the latter according to the order price, delivery distance, delivery period "ladder pricing", mainly used to pay the rider's salary, subsidies, personnel training management and other costs, note that only when the merchant chooses "Meituan Delivery", it needs to be charged. If the merchant feels that the fee is high or has the ability to deliver independently, they can choose different delivery methods such as self-delivery and third-party delivery. The transparent rate model allows riders to work more and get more, and also allows merchants to do takeaway can "settle accounts", and the transparency policy of Meituan takeaway commission in 2022 will cover the whole country.
Based on the exploration of rate transparency reform for more than half a year, Meituan's 2021 financial report can disclose new data, the real platform commission is how much the technical service fee is clear at a glance, and the listed company's financial reports have strict accounting firm audits, which are very convincing. The real takeaway commission rate level is 4.1%.
4.1%, is it a reasonable charge?
First look at the situation in other countries abroad, doordash and Uber Eats and other mainstream U.S. food delivery platforms have a commission rate of 30%, and some do not include delivery fees. Compared with other industries, the commission rate of mainland online ride-hailing is about 20%, the physical e-commerce platform foreign Amazon is more than 10%, and the domestic is more than 5%, for example, in 2021, Baidu e-commerce adjusts the proportion of technical service fees on the platform to 5%.
The takeaway platform does not do less than the online car, e-commerce and other platforms, which provide merchants with multiple services such as online settlement, decoration, operation, marketing, after-sales service, maintenance, etc., and it is reasonable to charge "technical service fees". What we see is a 4.1% commission, but what is not easy to see is the service provided by the takeaway platform to the merchant and the value created:
1. The takeaway platform provides traffic resources to merchants. Takeaway users are not naturally obtained, but need the platform to spend money to promote the platform App, Mini Program, etc. to obtain traffic, these traffic eventually to the merchant, to provide them with store settlement, commodity display, brand and preferential exposure and other online information display services, to help merchants fully expand the scope of customers, reduce customer acquisition costs, enrich consumption scenarios, improve transaction success rate.
2. The takeaway platform needs to invest a lot of technical costs to provide merchants with a stable service system. Large Internet companies spend a lot of money on cloud infrastructure such as computer rooms and broadband, and the cost of a computer room investment and construction is often hundreds of millions, not counting daily maintenance expenses. The pressure of IT investment on takeaway platforms is greater than that of physical e-commerce platforms, because takeaway has obvious peak characteristics, and a large number of users near lunch and dinner pour in to generate orders, and all require performance within tens of minutes, this immediacy and band business characteristics are similar to the Spring Festival ticket rush, which not only puts forward high requirements for the scale, stability and technical capabilities of the platform server, but also produces a large number of IT resources redundancy during the low peak period of the business. With the growth of order scale, the takeaway platform can only continue to invest funds, expand cloud computing resources such as servers, optimize technical capabilities, and improve service stability to meet the service needs of riders, merchants, users and other participants in the takeaway ecosystem. In 2021, Meituan's research and development expenses were 16.68 billion yuan, accounting for 9.3% of revenue, an increase of 53% year-on-year, many of which were due to a large amount of IT investment.
3. Takeaway platforms have heavier offline operating costs. Unlike physical e-commerce platforms, which mainly rely on online operations, the takeaway platform has an offline BD team composed of thousands of people responsible for expanding, docking and serving merchants, helping them to launch online takeaway platforms, develop dishes, install system equipment, etc. The more merchants, the greater the manpower investment. In addition, because the takeaway service has stronger immediacy, users, riders, and merchants have problems that need to be quickly solved, so the takeaway platform will be equipped with a professional manual customer service team, 7x24 hours to answer questions to merchants and provide various consulting services such as order transactions. Offline and online service teams bring real value to merchants, but also generate huge costs.
4. The takeaway platform provides merchants with full-link support for transactions. The takeaway platform provides merchants with full-chain online transaction services such as receiving orders, receiving payments, settlement and invoicing, and fully guarantees the safety and efficiency of online transactions of merchants through technical and other means.
5. The takeaway platform provides data analysis services to merchants. For example, Meituan Takeaway provides merchants with transaction evaluation feedback tools, user real-time communication tools and comprehensive business data analysis tools, etc., so that merchants can operate takeaways more scientifically, improve their management capabilities, improve their digital level, and achieve profit growth and brand improvement while order volume growth.
The takeaway platform is not to say that it does not care about building a platform, on the contrary, it still has a lot of work to do, not only to let the merchants do takeaway, but also to help the merchants do a good job in all aspects from the dimensions of traffic, data, tools, services, security, etc. Behind this there is a large number of traffic purchases, server procurement, technology research and development, service personnel and other inputs, so that the platform to charge commissions is reasonable, and the platform can not be operated without charging.
Anything can be saved, the rider cost can not
Judging from the Meituan financial report, most of the money given by the merchant to the platform is spent on the rider, and this part of the money must be spent, because the instant logistics in the same city is the basis of the takeaway industry, and the takeaway rider is the key to the order fulfillment of the takeaway platform, so that the takeaway rider has a decent income for the delivery timeliness, service and other guarantees.
In 2021, more than 5.27 million riders earned revenue through the Meituan platform, and the delivery cost of takeaway riders reached about 68.2 billion yuan, and the delivery fee for each rider was about 7.07 yuan. Some takeaway orders are self-matched by merchants, but the financial report shows that Meituan delivery (1P orders) accounted for 67%, reaching 9.648 billion, most of the delivery performance is the responsibility of Meituan riders, merchants and users can not cover the cost of riders, the platform subsidies a lot.
On the one hand, in the past two years, due to factors such as rising labor costs, the cost of riders has risen significantly. Rider income can not be reduced, and can not charge users too high delivery fees - because only logistics costs to a relatively suitable price, people are willing to spend money to order takeaway, takeaway can continue to accelerate the popularity, become people's daily life; can not charge more logistics costs to merchants, Meituan takeaway now charge this part has been harshly reprimanded. Rider income to be met platforms had to be subsidized.
On the other hand, the takeaway platform "low-priced orders" to the bottom, it is understood that the takeaway platform below 20 yuan orders accounted for 40%, but the rider's single delivery income can not be reduced because of the small amount of the order, after all, its labor payment has not changed much. If the income is too small and the rider is not willing to match, the business model of takeaway will not run.
The financial report shows that Meituan's catering delivery service revenue from merchants and users in 2021 was 54.2 billion yuan, but the annual delivery cost of riders was 68.2 billion yuan. In 2021, Meituan's direct subsidy for riders will reach 14 billion yuan.
Where does the money for this part of the platform subsidy come from? Of course, it was not made out of thin air. On the surface, Meituan Takeaway also "earned" 0.43 yuan per takeaway in 2021, and the operating profit of takeaway in 2021 was 6.2 billion yuan, with an operating profit margin of 6.4%. But in fact, if the operating costs such as research and development and service are taken into account, meituan takeaway is a loss. In 2021, Meituan's net loss was also as high as 15.6 billion yuan. The reason for the loss is that Meituan said that it was "in order to promote industrial upgrading and help improve the production efficiency of all factors, it continued to increase investment in infrastructure such as warehousing and logistics nationwide." ”
As a company, Meituan definitely wants to be profitable and must be profitable, and it is not realistic to rely on capital subsidies all the time. In my opinion, the source of meituan's profit lies in technology, and in the takeaway, meituan provides intelligent scheduling and other technology empowerment to help riders improve efficiency, and reduce the logistics costs of both merchants and users under the premise of ensuring their revenue.
Meituan is also laying out some cutting-edge technologies to explore a farther future. The financial report shows that the Meituan UAV has now landed a normalized takeaway delivery service in Shenzhen Longgang District, Pingshan District and other areas, covering more than 8,000 residents and completing 30,000 orders for real users. Meituan's self-developed new generation of automatic delivery vehicle Magic Bag 20 was successfully released, beginning to take on mass production capabilities, as of now, Meituan automatic delivery vehicle has been in regular operation in Shunyi District, Beijing for nearly 2 years, covering more than 20 communities in Shunyi, while carrying out takeaway delivery services in many colleges and universities across the country.
In the long run, intelligent delivery methods such as drones and automatic delivery vehicles will help the takeaway industry reduce logistics costs, but in the foreseeable future, the takeaway industry will have to rely on the support of an army of millions of riders. Protecting the income and rights and interests of riders, while improving the logistics efficiency of the platform, controlling the logistics costs of the platform, expanding the order scale of the platform, helping the healthy growth of merchants, and upgrading the user's consumer experience, is the key to the sustainable development of the takeaway industry.