China’s most valuable travel giant Meituan Mulling emerged as rival to Uber

Saturday, March 24, 2018

Meituan Dianping, which is one of the most popular Chinese food reviews and delivery giant backed by Tencent Holdings Ltd., has emerged with record revenue generation around $60 billion at IPO .

Meituan Dianping is weighing a valuation of at least $60 billion and is considering a listing in China as well if policy conditions allow, asking not to be named because the matter is private.

Meituan Dianping is the world’s fourth most valuable startup with a latest valuation of $30 billion, is symbolic of a generation of up-and-comers that have emerged to challenge the dominance of Tencent and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.

It provides on-demand and local services akin to a mash-up of Groupon, Yelp and Deliveroo, and is moving into new areas such as ride-sharing and travel.

It is a super-app hawking everything from group-buying deals and ride hailing to travel packages and payments.

From here the Chinese customers can order up hot meals, groceries, massages, haircuts and manicures at home or in the office. Founded in 2010 by Wang Xing as a Groupon-alike, it handled $57 billion of transactions last year between about 320 million active buyers — about the size of the American population — and more than four million merchants.

If it gets the desired valuation, it could rival Uber Technologies Inc. as the world’s largest startup and represent a doubling in size.

The company however faces formidable rivals in each of its key businesses. It’s competing with entities backed by Alibaba in food delivery, with Didi Chuxing in ride hailing, and even with its own backer Tencent in payments. Investors also question whether it can sustain growth without a heavy cash burn.

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