Business wars never cease, with conflicts often revolving around the flow of people and money, repeating themselves in endless cycles.

On April 15, Meituan officially unveiled its instant retail brand, "Meituan Flash Buy." Upon entering the Meituan App homepage, consumers are greeted by a distinctive "Flash Buy" section, offering a wide array of products including vegetables, fruits, alcoholic beverages, snacks, digital appliances, beauty and skincare products, and more. Orders are delivered within an average of 30 minutes. In terms of product variety, coverage, and delivery speed, Meituan Flash Buy directly challenges JD.com's instant retail business, with its business tentacles boldly extending into JD.com's core 3C territory. In the food delivery sector, where JD.com is mounting an attack, the day before, on April 14, Meituan, in direct competition with JD.com's "billion subsidy" promotion, announced that it would invest 100 billion yuan in the catering industry over the next three years, focusing on subsidizing merchants, activating consumer demand, issuing assistance funds to help merchants boost revenue, and supporting and rewarding high-quality merchants. It is clear that Meituan is defending its core business with substantial investments. Meituan's counterattack has intensified the conflict between the two sides. In recent months and beyond, JD.com and Meituan have shown no signs of backing down, with frequent business maneuvers and mutual encroachment on each other's territories, akin to two fierce lions locked in combat. The prospects for peaceful resolution are dwindling.

I. Escalating "Verbal Wars"

The business war between JD.com and Meituan has escalated, involving both direct confrontations in the market and mutual taunts in the public sphere. On April 15, after the launch of "Meituan Flash Buy," the brand positioned itself as a "new-generation shopping platform that accompanies consumers 24/7," boasting "30-minute delivery." On Meituan's official account, the introduction of "Meituan Flash Buy" not only highlighted timeliness but also emphasized cost-effectiveness, stating: "We adhere to the shortest industry account period of 3 days, support withdrawals at any time, and shorten the average payback cycle by 2 months compared to self-operated express e-commerce." This was a direct dig at JD.com, with little attempt at subtlety. Furthermore, in the comment section of Meituan's official account, comments mentioning JD.com were released for comparison. Additionally, the promotional content from Meituan Flash Buy's video account compared its delivery speed with online shopping, specifically mentioning that when shopping online, "your Dongdong will have to wait a bit longer," accompanied by an image resembling the JD.com App logo, making its intentions clear.

From this perspective, it seems that Meituan Flash Buy is adopting JD.com's long-used slogan of "more, faster, better, cheaper" in a highly provocative manner. At this point, there is no need for either side to hide their intentions. Also, on the afternoon of the 15th, JD.com's Blackboard Newspaper published an article stating, "JD.com doesn't fight verbal wars, but it will insist on telling the truth." The article responded to the issues that Meituan was more "concerned" about, such as the number of JD.com's food delivery riders, the allocation of provident funds, the number of food delivery orders, and merchant cooperation, adding a taunt: "Today is a good day, and today JD.com's quality takeout orders will exceed 5 million. Because they are all quality dine-in takeouts, the GMV is even larger than the 10 million 'ghost takeout' orders."

The development of events follows this logic. Recently, Liu Qiangdong, the leader of JD.com, and Wang Puzhong, the second-in-command of Meituan, have both entered the fray, pushing the public war between the two sides to a climax. Two days earlier, Wang Puzhong, who oversees Meituan's local life business, seemed agitated about JD.com's business and public opinion wars in the food delivery field this year. On social media, he directly responded: "JD.com is not the first company that wants to do food delivery, and it may not be the last. Alibaba, Didi, and ByteDance have all tried it before, and Didi is still doing it overseas now." Even in his emotional and determined speech, Wang Puzhong included the phrase: "A desperate dog jumps over the wall, besiege Wei to rescue Zhao."

In the face of all this, Liu Qiangdong, who seems to be remotely commanding JD.com's business, appeared calm and composed when confronted with questions about this competition from his subordinates. He said that if he had time, he would quickly join the "Delivery Rider Emergency Response Team" to see if any delivery or express riders were in difficulty during harsh weather conditions or to participate in the procurement team of export-blocked enterprises to provide them with assistance as soon as possible.

Moreover, in a private chat interface that later became public knowledge, Liu Qiangdong did not forget to elevate the issue at the end: "Don't engage in verbal wars with others, and don't generate social value!"

Looking back at the commercial conflicts between the two sides in recent months and beyond, it is evident that both have their own challenges. For Meituan, a potential competitor might tear open an already established market structure, making it more difficult for Wang Puzhong to report on his work. For JD.com, as it retreats in the core e-commerce field and its living space is continuously squeezed, the pressure must prompt it to take action. Behind this escalating public war lies a battle that both sides must fight for growth, profit, and even survival.

II. JD.com's Breakthrough and Meituan's Encirclement

Since February of this year, JD.com has chosen to act first and refine its strategy later, even though its transportation capacity, efficiency, cost, and product categories are not yet sufficient to support its food delivery business as a major driver of group growth.

A direct question arises: Why did JD.com suddenly enter a red ocean and low-margin industry like food delivery? In fact, with its product infrastructure still imperfect and inadequate supply and demand on both ends, JD.com's hasty announcement to the outside world may not be solely about "rectifying the industry" as stated in its slogan, but rather stems from deeper anxieties. In 2024, JD.com proposed three battles it must win, including the highly anticipated live streaming studios for procurement and sales, attracting more POP merchants, and promoting JD.com's one-hour delivery service. The core logic behind these initiatives has always been to find traffic and growth. Currently, JD.com is caught in a low-price spiral in the e-commerce field, and to stabilize its core business, it must seek change and innovation. Especially after JD.com's e-commerce business scale was surpassed by Pinduoduo and Douyin, change is imperative. Therefore, JD.com's recent series of intensive adjustments in its food delivery business and its high-profile rhetoric in public opinion are actually seeking breakthroughs for its business growth while also revitalizing the increasingly tool-oriented JD.com App by drawing traffic from other areas. Currently, JD.com's traffic anxiety is much greater than that of other competitors, especially now that the tool-oriented tendency of the JD.com App is becoming more pronounced. The lack of traffic is making it difficult for the company to maneuver. As a result, although JD.com has been active in recent years, it has only dabbled in many businesses, and the company's caution has always been difficult to shake off. When JD.com's main e-commerce business faltered in recent years, and new businesses such as JD Joybuy and JD Fresh also progressed unsmoothly, JD.com began to accelerate its layout of same-city services last year, trying to use high-frequency local consumption to drive low-frequency e-commerce consumption. However, it is worth noting that whether it is the continuation of JD.com's low-price strategy in e-commerce or the introduction of a new "billion subsidy" program for food delivery, both may squeeze the profits of JD.com Group. And if profit-for-growth stalls, the pressure will greatly affect the company itself. For JD.com, which has relatively limited profit margins, financial pressure may continue to rise. From this perspective, whether in instant retail or food delivery, JD.com's offensive appears aggressive but is actually more like a passive breakthrough due to a lack of traffic: if traffic continues to be scarce and growth is difficult to find, its living space is bound to be further squeezed. Unlike JD.com's forced breakthrough, Meituan has quietly encircled JD.com within the scope of its instant retail business in recent years. Over the past many years, JD.com has established advantages in retail such as genuine products, low prices, and convenience. It has invested heavily in building an efficient logistics network that can meet consumers' needs for "order today, arrive tomorrow." However, since 2018, Meituan's flash purchase business has taken shape, and with the deepening cooperation between itself and merchants, the product variety has gradually improved. Currently, Meituan's instant delivery network has unabashedly launched a comprehensive challenge to JD.com, and its 30-minute delivery capacity also forms a disguised encirclement of JD.com's "next-day delivery." Data shows that the daily order volume of Meituan's non-catering instant retail has exceeded 18 million orders. For products such as fresh food, alcoholic beverages, daily necessities, and 3C appliances, every purchase made by users on Meituan may put further pressure on JD.com's core business. Therefore, when Meituan Flash Buy's hands increasingly reach into JD.com's already pressured core 3C business, the contradiction between the two sides has finally intensified to the point that it is now almost out of control.

III. Asymmetric Warfare

In August 2016, Wang Xing, the founder of Meituan, predicted that the food delivery war would end within half a year to a year. After experiencing large-scale subsidy burning and business integration, Wang Xing then said that as long as there is a certain network effect in the market, regardless of strength or weakness, after a long period of competition and integration, a 7:2:1 pattern will gradually form.

In 2018, with Ele.me merging with Koubei, there were only two major players left in the food delivery market. Today, the market share of Meituan and Ele.me is roughly 7:3.

Therefore, before JD.com entered the food delivery market, Meituan had already fulfilled Wang Xing's prediction and had a significant advantageous position. If we only compare business volumes, Meituan and the latecomer JD.com are not in the same league in the food delivery business, and it is highly probable that it will be a war without suspense. However, similar to unexpected but refreshing war cases that refresh war theory, in modern warfare, some inexpensive drones can cause heavy damage to the invincible tanks of the last century. Such asymmetric but highly profitable wars are actually a true portrayal of the business competition between Meituan and JD.com in recent months: Since February, JD.com's frequent moves in the food delivery field have somewhat caught Meituan off guard and even put it on the defensive. Among them, the overlooked rights and interests of food delivery riders in the food delivery market have become a leverage point for JD.com's food delivery business to attack Meituan, achieving great results with minimal effort. Although both sides are aware that the number of JD.com's food delivery riders is limited in the short term, and even if the social security plan proposed by JD.com is adopted, the current universal coverage for riders is actually limited, with form often outweighing substance. However, the momentum generated and the downward pressure of public opinion have also made Meituan passive. Whether to follow suit on the social security front is a problem.

An inappropriate but illustrative example is that in 2024, Meituan's annual profit was less than 20 billion yuan, and money was hard-earned: It should be noted that in 2024, under the administration of Guo Wanhuai of Meituan, its "big knife" of cost reduction and efficiency enhancement was aimed at new businesses, and only after considering various factors was such a profit achieved. However, once Meituan follows JD.com's plan, if it wants to cover tens of millions of riders, the financial pressure will be enormous and even unbearable. Additionally, another asymmetry in the business war between the two sides lies in the different levels of their headquarters' involvement. Many years ago, JD.com and Meituan were not conservative, especially their founders, who belong to the category of radical and sharp people and are themselves at the center of the storm. For example, in 2018, following the Minnesota incident, JD.com shifted gears. And Wang Xing frequently posted short essays on Fanfou, sparking controversy, and eventually disappearing from public view. As a result, it is not difficult to see that whether it is JD.com or Meituan, the founders of these companies have been unable to truly be on the front lines in recent years due to various reasons, instead letting their agents take the lead. However, as Liu Qiangdong gradually steps onto the stage, the energy displayed by the two sides is also tilted at present. For example, often just a few sentences from Liu Qiangdong's WeChat Moments can create a shockwave and bring continuous pressure to Meituan. This may also be one of the reasons for the intense emotions of Wang Puzhong, the second-in-command of Meituan, recently. Business competition never sleeps. But a bold guess is, if the intensity intensifies, will Wang Xing of Meituan step forward himself?