Interface News Reporter | Xiao Fang
Interface News Editor | Song Jianan
On April 18, Meituan CEO Wang Xing issued an internal email announcing a new round of structural adjustments: the previously integrated Meituan platform, the store business group, the home business group and the basic R&D platform will be merged into the "core local business" sector, and Wang Puzhong will be the CEO of the core local business.
At the same time, Meituan will no longer set up the in-store business group and the Daojia business group, and the departments under the original jurisdiction of the two business groups will be adjusted to directly belong to the "core local business".
This is the company's fourth restructuring this year. Its previous adjustments have focused on the local commercial business with store and home delivery as the core, mainly integrating and developing the store and home delivery business independently and developing in a coordinated manner.
In February this year, Meituan's Daojia Business Group, In-Store Business Group, Meituan Platform, Basic R&D and other business groups were adjusted to jointly report to Wang Puzhong, a member of the S-team, and Zhang Chuan, senior vice president of Meituan and former president of the In-Store Business Group, will be responsible for Dianping, SaaS, cycling, power bank and other businesses.
Since then, new business leaders have been appointed for both the store and home delivery businesses, and all of them are young managers who have grown up within Meituan.
For example, Wei Wei, the company's vice president, will be in charge of the in-store catering division, Zhang Ruoyu will take over the position of the person in charge of the takeaway fulfillment platform, and Xue Bing, who is a fresh graduate from the school, will become the head of the takeaway business department. Under the food delivery division, the urban business department was established with Huang Xiaoqin as the person in charge, the chain business department was established with Li Jiayi as the person in charge, and the supply exploration department was established and Chu Zheng was appointed as the person in charge. The above persons in charge all report to Xue Bing, the head of the takeaway business department.
Based on the four structural adjustments this year, the latest round is to officially name the business integration results since February this year, and clarify the identity and role of Wang Puzhong.
Wang Xing said in the email that he expects the "core local business" to adhere to the mission of "helping everyone eat better and live better", strengthen the construction of the management system, continue to upgrade the organizational capacity, consolidate the technical foundation, seize the technological opportunities, deepen the industry, and create more value for customers.
According to an analyst from a source close to Meituan, in recent years, Meituan's business has shown typical diversified characteristics, including platforms, self-operation and other models, and different businesses are at different stages of development, and the allocation and management methods are also different. Therefore, further integration of the business and iterative organization is conducive to improving efficiency and adapting to change.
Li Chengdong, a well-known Internet analyst, pointed out that the reason for Meituan's frequent structural adjustments this year is mainly to deal with the competition between Douyin and Kuaishou.
According to official data from Douyin, the total transaction volume of its life service platform increased by 256% last year, of which the transaction volume converted through short videos increased by more than 80%, and the transaction volume of live broadcast increased by 5.7 times.
Jiemian News learned from Meituan that the company's management will truly realize the challenges brought by Douyin in 2023 and begin to quickly adjust its strategic direction.
Another competitor, Kuaishou, is also not to be underestimated in terms of local life. In March, Kuaishou sent an important signal to the outside world - all group buying is worth doing in Kuaishou.
An important value point used by Kuaishou to attract local lifestyle merchants to settle in is the uniqueness and incremental value of the platform's users. According to the "Kuaishou Local Life User Insight Report", its users show "three more" characteristics: there are many female users, many young users under the age of 30, and many users in new tier cities (third tier and below). These users have plenty of time, have a high degree of acceptance of short videos and live broadcasts, and their disposable income is also increasing year by year, and they are experiencing a round of large-scale consumption upgrades.
According to information learned from Meituan by Jiemian News, the third-tier and below markets are also the markets that Meituan cares about the most in this round of local life competition.
In the past 10 years of competition, Meituan's infrastructure has been mainly concentrated in first- and second-tier cities. Through the construction of digital infrastructure such as transportation capacity and merchant acquiring, Meituan still has a clear advantage, and it is difficult for Douyin to pose a fatal threat to it in the short term.
But the situation is very different in Tier 3 and below. Whether it is capacity reserves or merchant operations, Meituan has not established a deep enough moat in these areas as in first-tier cities, and it is urgent to further expand its user coverage.
According to a Meituan insider, since last year, Meituan-related personnel have visited third-tier cities and below many times and found that some merchants do have a stronger perception of Douyin than Meituan, and some merchants will even ask why they have already settled in Douyin.
This prompted Meituan to move quickly and replicate its past play in first- and second-tier cities to third-tier cities and below, and this approach has already paid off.
Gong Yuqing, head of Meituan's life service business, previously revealed at a public event that the sinking market is becoming a "new engine" for growth. Meituan data shows that in 2023, the transaction volume of Meituan's life services (including housekeeping, washing, and maintenance) will double year-on-year, and consumers aged 20-35 will account for more than 7 percent. The transaction scale of users in third-tier cities and below increased by more than 80% compared with 2021, ranking first among all tier-1 cities.
Obviously, Meituan still needs to compete fiercely with Douyin and Kuaishou in third-tier cities and below this year, and improving operational efficiency is one of the core issues it needs to solve.
Li Chengdong said that in the original organizational structure of Meituan, Daodian and Daojia were operated independently, but the merchant groups served by different business lines overlapped very highly, and different business lines also had different traffic and different pricing methods, which was a bit confusing for merchants. Now unified to the core local business, the experience for merchants is better, otherwise merchants may be more willing to use Douyin.
Another detail that cannot be overlooked in this structural adjustment is that the basic R&D platform has also been integrated into the "core local business". This line of thinking has been clearly demonstrated in the structural adjustment in February, when the relatively independent basic R&D platform has been transferred to Wang Puzhong to report. This means that Meituan's "core local business" business has more resources and manpower that can be flexibly deployed in the competition with Douyin Kuaishou, and can respond flexibly from a technical point of view, thereby improving efficiency.
From several rounds of structural adjustments, it can be seen that Meituan should strengthen its advantages on the supply side on the one hand, and on the other hand, it must continue to understand and meet the new needs of consumers and improve the consumer experience.
In addition, Meituan Takeaway has launched a number of innovative projects, including satellite stores.
On April 8, Xue Bing announced the "Brand Satellite Store" 10,000-store rebate plan at a catering industry summit, including 6-month commission return, more than 100 million yuan of traffic support, and three major support measures, including free AI site selection, product selection, and precision marketing services. The launch of the plan aims to help brand merchants solve problems such as store location, traffic conversion, and excessive investment, and quickly seize the consumption dividend in the era of "quality-price ratio".
Li Chengdong said that after the merchant's experience is better, it also has a very positive impact on the improvement of user experience. "Organizational adjustment, in the end, should be reflected in the user's better consumption experience and more willingness to consume on the platform. ”