On September 12, the 2024 China International Fair for Trade in Services (hereinafter referred to as "CIFTIS") with the theme of "Global Services, Mutual Benefit and Sharing" officially opened in Beijing. It is reported that this year's CIFTIS highlights new quality productivity and shows the future industrial development trend; Strengthen the essence of transactions, give full play to the role of international exchange platforms, and set up exhibitions, negotiation and promotion, results release and various supporting activities.
As a technology retail company, Meituan participated in the fair for the fifth time this year, bringing its drones, autonomous delivery vehicles, Meituan medicine and many other businesses to the CIFTIS.
▲The Meituan exhibition area at the CIFTIS was crowded Photo: Wu Bin
Walking through the CIFTIS Complex, new products and applications spawned by intelligent technology can be seen everywhere. Takeaway to buy medicine to achieve medical insurance account payment, B&B exhibition area to experience AI intelligent interaction, watch drones fly over the Badaling Great Wall in the air...... From the "debut" of technology to the "trend" of life, Meituan uses technology to drive the integrated development of catering, accommodation, leisure and entertainment, cultural tourism and other business formats, and allows consumers to experience the convenience brought by online and offline integration through panoramic business sand tables and urban smart life scenes.
The relevant person in charge of Meituan said that in the future, Meituan will continue to improve the quality and efficiency of service retail through technological innovation, stimulate market consumption potential, and help everyone eat better and live a better life.
"Taste bud tour + intangible cultural heritage tour" stimulates new vitality of service retail
Riding a Meituan bicycle to trace ancient buildings, opening the Dianping must-eat list, looking for delicious food in characteristic shops, rushing to buy gift coupons on Meituanshen, hoarding explosive products and continuing to consume...... Do you feel familiar with the daily life you experienced at the CIFTIS?
Behind the convenient life, Meituan helps cities create one-stop life service consumption scenarios such as catering and entertainment, hotel accommodation, leisure and shopping, and realizes the linkage of online and offline consumption.
Nowadays, the potential of green and low-carbon travel continues to be released, and it has become the active choice of more and more consumers. At the Meituan booth, cycling on the central axis of Beijing, which "starts from Yongding Gate in the south to the Bell and Drum Tower in the north", has become a new trend of green life.
▲Riding a Meituan bicycle, enjoying the beautiful scenery of the central axis, and tasting special food have become popular interactive ways in the Meituan exhibition area Photo: Wu Bin
Meituan data shows that from January to July this year, the search popularity of the Beijing Central Axis on the Meituan platform increased by 58% year-on-year compared with 2023. After the successful application of the Beijing Central Axis for World Heritage Status, the search popularity of one-day tours of the Central Axis, B&Bs on the Central Axis, and restaurants on the Central Axis ranks among the highest.
Eight Ye Shabu Shabu, Wild Kite Brewpub, Xiaolin Meatloaf, Yin San Bean Juice....... On the cycling road, there are not only ancient court dishes, imperial dishes, but also various street foods from the hutongs, as well as a large number of time-honored restaurants and world cuisines.
Meituan is also continuing to focus on using technology to help time-honored brands digitally transform and use digital means to match supply and demand. The new two-wheel drive of "shelf + explosive products" displayed at the scene of the CIFTIS attracted many citizens to stop, and also brought new vitality to more than 30 time-honored brands such as Xinghualou, Dafugui Restaurant, Laodafang, Xinya Cantonese Restaurant, Quanjude, and Emei Restaurant.
Intelligent technology has not only become a "technology assistant" for merchant operations, but also brings a new consumption experience to consumers. Walking into the Meituan B&B exhibition area, you can see that in the wave of promoting the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, the introduction of artificial intelligence technology has undoubtedly injected new vitality into the B&B industry. Meituan's AI intelligent customer service assistant has excellent semantic understanding capabilities and can quickly respond to the diverse needs of users, with an average of more than 2.3 million messages replied to every month.
Instant retail acceleration and green technology transformation
At present, the integration of digital technology and the real economy is accelerating, the demand for "everything to the home in 30 minutes" is constantly stimulated, and technological innovation drives the upgrading of service retail experience.
From online ordering to purchasing medicines, to paying for medical insurance accounts to delivering food to their homes, the new option of buying drugs with instant medical insurance is bringing more convenience to Beijing citizens.
Many citizens searched for "medical insurance" on Meituan through the guidance of the on-site staff, and easily found online pharmacies around them that support medical insurance account payment. Up to now, Meituan has opened online medical insurance services in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Qingdao, Zhuhai, Shangrao, Dongguan and other cities.
In the past five years, the pilot construction of a transportation power has continued to advance, and the scale of instant delivery scenarios has continued to grow. Ice water flies over the Great Wall "falling from the sky", and goods such as heatstroke prevention and cooling only need to be ordered online, and they can be delivered in as fast as 5 minutes. At present, Meituan UAV has opened Beijing's first drone delivery route on the Badaling Great Wall, a national AAAAA-level scenic spot.
At the CIFTIS, the automatic delivery vehicle with self-developed L4 autonomous driving software and hardware technology as the core has also attracted much attention. It is understood that since 2020, automatic distribution vehicles have gradually entered the stage of normalized trial operation in Beijing, Shenzhen and other places. From early morning to night, Meituan's automated delivery vehicles pass through the streets and alleys of Shenzhen, overcoming complex road conditions such as the old city, evening rush hour, and night markets, and efficiently coping with the technical and trial operation challenges brought about by the rainy weather in summer, providing residents with regular automatic delivery services for fresh food and groceries. By the end of December 2023, autonomous driving mileage accounted for more than 99%, and nearly 4 million outdoor full-scene deliveries had been completed.
Green consumption has taken advantage of the momentum, and the concept of moderate economy and consumption patterns have been integrated into all aspects of people's clothing, food, housing and transportation. In order to enhance the economic value of recycled lunch boxes, Tsingshan plans to work with partners to turn waste plastic lunch boxes into sportswear, backpacks and many other "green" products.
As of the end of August this year, Meituan Tsingshan plans to link the upstream and downstream of the industry, and has implemented large-scale garbage sorting and lunch box recycling projects in 22 cities in 20 provinces across the country, recycling about 22,000 tons of plastic lunch boxes and helping to reduce carbon emissions by about 34,000 tons.
Meituan has launched the application for the fourth "Tsingshan Science and Technology Award" on August 30, which will promote the industry's environmental protection technology innovation and inject new momentum into the development of service retail. (Xuan Hongyan)