In 2021, Meituan shifted its corporate strategy from “Food + Platform” to “Retail + Technology”, further expanding product and service offerings to the broader retail, connecting with more market participants, and leveraging technology to facilitate advancement across industries, according to Meituan.
Meituan’s total revenues increased by 56.0% year over year to RMB179.1 billion in 2021. The aggregate operating profit for the food delivery and the in-store, hotel & travel segments reached RMB20.3 billion in 2021, up from RMB11.0 billion in 2020.
Operating loss for the new initiatives and other segments expanded as it remained committed to business areas that would bring long-term value. Both adjusted EBITDA and adjusted net profit experienced a year-over-year decrease and turned to a negative RMB9.7 billion and an adjusted net loss of RMB15.6 billion in 2021, respectively.
Meituan’s net cash flows from operating activities turned to an outflow of RMB4.0 billion in 2021 from an inflow of RMB8.5 billion in 2020. It had cash and cash equivalents of RMB32.5 billion and short-term treasury investments of RMB84.3 billion as of December 31, 2021, compared to the balances of RMB17.1 billion and RMB44.0 billion as of December 31, 2020, respectively.
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Meituan Food Delivery
The peak daily order volume exceeded 50 million in August and subsequently reached historic highs again in December. GTV increased by 43.6% year over year to RMB702.1 billion, and revenue increased by 45.3% year over year to RMB96.3 billion in 2021.
Operating profit increased to RMB6.2 billion in 2021 from RMB2.8 billion in 2020, while operating margin increased to 6.4% from 4.3%.
For the fourth quarter of 2021, GTV of Meituan food delivery business increased by 20.7% year over year to RMB188.6 billion, with daily average order volume increasing by 17.4% year over year to 42.5 million.
Revenues from the food delivery business increased by 21.3% year over year to RMB26.1 billion. Operating profit from food delivery business increased to RMB1.7 billion for the fourth quarter of 2021 from RMB882.4 million for the fourth quarter of 2020, while the operating margin increased to 6.6% from 4.1%, primarily attributable to a higher portion of online marketing services revenue and lower seasonal courier incentives.
The number of its transacting users grew to 690.5 million while the number of active merchants grew to 8.8 million.
In-store, hotel & travel
Revenues from the in-store, hotel & travel businesses increased by 53.1% year over year to RMB32.5 billion in 2021. Operating profit increased to RMB14.1 billion in 2021 from RMB8.2 billion in 2020, while operating margin increased to 43.3% from 38.5%.
In 2021, Meituan’s domestic hotel room nights grew 34.5%.
New initiatives and others
Revenues from the new initiatives and other segments increased by 84.4% year over year to RMB50.3 billion in 2021. Operating loss from new initiatives and other segments expanded to RMB38.4 billion in 2021 from RMB10.9 billion in 2020, while operating margin decreased 36.6 percentage points year over year.
The three-level logistics network system established by Meituan Select, which fulfills next-day pick-up orders, now covers the majority of neighborhoods and villages in 30 provinces across China.