E95 – The Impulso Podcast – How Meituan overtook FoodPanda in Hong Kong, and what’s next?

Earlier in September, Meituan went live in Saudi Arabia under its global brand, Keeta.

This comes more than a year after Meituan entered its first overseas market, Hong Kong, where it quickly overtook established players like Foodpanda, becoming the market leader in order volume due to aggressive promotions and a focus on low Average Order Value (AOV) meals.

Now, Meituan is entering Saudi Arabia, a promising market for food delivery but one that presents unique cultural and operational dynamics for Meituan compared to its previous markets. And unlike many Chinese tech companies going global, Meituan faces the challenge of being an operationally heavy business.

Will Tony Qiu, Head of International Business at Meituan and former lead of DiDi’s expansion in Latin America, be able to navigate these complexities?

Tune in to the latest episode of the Impulso Podcast as we explore Meituan’s global expansion strategy, and what’s next for the food delivery giant.

Also available on Spotify and Apple Podcast.

Featured materials:
Meituan is entering Hong Kong, will it beat Foodpanda and Deliveroo there?, The Low Down
Meituan becomes top food delivery player in Hong Kong, The Low Down
Watch Out! KeeTa’s Rapid Rise in Hong Kong, measurable.ai
Total Restaurant Receipts and Restaurant Purchases, Hong Kong Government
McDonald’s to increase prices in Hong Kong by about 2.6% in new year, South China Morning Post
Will Meituan beat DeliveryHero in Saudi Arabia?, The Low Down
Meituan launches in Saudi Arabia, where next?, The Low Down
Should Meituan acquire Foodpanda?, The Low Down
In focus: food delivery platforms in Southeast Asia, Momentum Works

Picture Sources:
https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3199243/two-dish-rice-cheap-fabulously-rich-and-hong-kong-icon-time-declare-it-part-citys-intangible
https://www.asiaone.com/lifestyle/lifehack-teaches-you-how-order-cai-fan-pro

[AI-generated transcript]
Sabrina: [00:00:00] Hello everyone and welcome to episode 95 of the Impulso Podcast by Momentum Works. So on today’s episode, we’re going to be talking about Meituan, China’s leading food delivery player and its overseas expansion, Keeta, under the brand name Keeta, into Hong Kong, as well as recently the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

So this episode is actually a request from a member of our community, following a podcast we did earlier in July called episode 85 delivery hero, losing grip where we talked about delivery hero, facing intense competition from most of its global portfolio. So if you guys are interested, that podcast will be linked in the show notes below.

I hope you enjoyed today’s episode where we talk a little bit more about Keeta becoming the market leader in terms of orders numbers in Hong Kong, as well as its recent expansion into the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. And what’s next for Meituan’s overseas expansion.

Jianggan: Have you been to Hong Kong? No. 

Sabrina: Oh, yes, yes, yes. You have not been to Hong Kong? I’ve been to Hong Kong in, when I was 11. 

Jianggan: Okay, that’s like 30 years ago. 

Sabrina: No lah, that’s like. 

Jianggan: 10 years ago. 

Sabrina: Yeah, more than 10 10 years 

Jianggan: ago. How’s that? What was the impression? 

Sabrina: I don’t remember anything.

I only know I went to Disneyland. 

Jianggan: Okay. 

Sabrina: Yes. I only remember going to Disneyland. 

Jianggan: That’s the only thing you visited in Hong Kong.

Sabrina: I went, like, as part of a school trip. So it was like a school performance.

So we performed at Disneyland. 

Jianggan: You performed at Disneyland? Yeah, yeah, yeah. What, did you have to dress up as a mouse? No, no, 

Sabrina: no. So I was in a band. So we performed in Disneyland. So think I only went to Disneyland. 

Jianggan: So you were completely detached from the real life of Hong Kong when 

Sabrina: you were 

Jianggan: there?

Interesting. 

Sabrina: When was the last time you went to Hong Kong? 

Jianggan: But you were in Hong Kong, like, last year. 

Sabrina: [00:00:00] So like an hour in March, 

Jianggan: that was, yeah. 

Sabrina: So in March we went to Shenzhen, but my flight was through Hong Kong. So I was in Hong Kong from the train station. I was in a cab from the train station to the airport. 

Jianggan: I lived in Hong Kong for two and a half years. I was more than 10 years ago. I think back then it was, one thing I felt moving from Singapore to Hong Kong was that everything there was very expensive.

Food wise, I mean, in Singapore, you have the hawker centers where you have the mixed vegetable rice and you can just go there, pack some rice and order like some dishes to go along with it. Right. So that, I mean, back then it cost like three, four, five Singapore dollars. And even now it’s still quite cheap.

 In Hong Kong, I think back then what we saw, I know I ate lots of noodles and lots of Thai fried rice. But I didn’t see a lot of that kind of concept, right? I mean, you basically order some rice and go along with some dishes, which was quite popular in Singapore. 

Sabrina: Yeah. So in Singapore, we call it cai fan, but the English name is like economy, [00:01:00] rice, 

Jianggan: economic, rice, 

Sabrina: economic rice.

So essentially it’s like a cheat meal that most office workers eat. So it’s like rice. And then with maybe two or three dishes, It’s either vegetable or meat dishes. So then the price will vary based on that as well. We eat it a lot now. 

Jianggan: So basically, the store owner will cook lots of dishes there.

Yeah, and you just choose the rice and pick a few 

Sabrina: dishes. 

Jianggan: So it’s getting popular in Hong Kong now. 

Sabrina: Yeah, so we were How do you know that it was becoming popular in Hong Kong? Who told you? 

Did you see it when you were in Hong Kong recently?

Jianggan: I didn’t, so I tried to avoid eating Hong Kong this time around because I didn’t see anything exciting.

 But lots of my friends are living in Hong Kong and they’re saying that the normal sort of office dish, just usually like, you know noodles with with fish balls and stuff, and it’s becoming very expensive. Yes, so, just I think just last 12 months or so last one or two years there have been lots of new stores emerging.

 Exactly as the economic rise concept. So they would [00:02:00] have like lots of dishes pre cooked and you just go and pick, and it’s usually take away . My friends have sent me like multiple videos of them at this kind of stores. Yeah, because I asked them to it’s I mean, I have many of these places I have seen at least not have a sitting area.

So people just go there, order the packet and leave and going back and eat in the office and stuff. 

Sabrina: It’s like a very office worker lunch thing. Right. And I think it makes sense that it’s kind of rising in Hong Kong because I think over the past few years, like you said, the last time you were in Hong Kong, you already felt that the prices are more expensive in Singapore.

But I think over the past few years, the prices have increased even more, right? Yes. So like, for example, we did some research before this to find out what kind of what’s been happening in the F&B scene in Hong Kong. Right. An example given was there’s this well known chain called Cafe de Coro, which is a, 

Jianggan: have you, have you 

Sabrina: eaten?

Jianggan: There was this curry beef brisket rice, which I used to have a lot. And also very, very quick breakfast. You go there. I mean, I think now you can order online and stuff [00:03:00] in the past is a place where you where they have I don’t know 50 60 items on the menu and they go inside and you order and they join a queue to pick up So it’s it runs like a production line.

Sabrina: So it’s very fast. 

Jianggan: It was very fast. It was very fast and the food was pretty good 

Sabrina: So they have a we’re looking at the prices of their hainanese chicken, right? So it used to be about 54 hong kong dollars in 2020 and now it’s about 60 hong kong dollars So there’s about a 10 percent increase in pricing and then of course, Generally a plate of char siu rice.

I guess 54 54 In 2020. Yeah, 

Jianggan: When I was there in 2020 2011 I think the price for that kind of thing for this will probably around 30 32 to 36. 

Sabrina: Wow. So that’s almost so it’s almost double in 

Jianggan: 10 years, right? 

Sabrina: And I don’t think it’s just the local food. So there was even an article i’ll link in the show notes below That’s it even mcdonald’s.

I mean, it’s also fast food But like a global brand announced that they would be raising their prices By two to three percent earlier this year 

Jianggan: So I had [00:04:00] a lot of mcdonald’s breakfast while I was in hong kong

First you don’t have time And McDonald’s is fast and they have a pretty good ground coffee. Their freshly brewed coffee is pretty good. Yeah. 

Sabrina: From McDonald’s. 

Jianggan: From McDonald’s. In Hong Kong it’s pretty good. 

Sabrina: You don’t hear a lot of people getting good coffee from McDonald’s. 

Jianggan: No, try it. You’ll be surprised.

Sabrina: Next time when we go to Hong Kong. So I think it’s interesting. That’s why I think we’ve seen sort of the rise of this. It’s called long song fan Two dish rice. So in cantonese, it’s called long song fan I’m, probably not pronouncing it correctly, but the english name is two dish rice And I think the reason why it’s raising popularity.

So we asked one of our colleagues who’s in macau 

Jianggan: Which is not Hong Kong, but close enough. 

Sabrina: Which is not Hong Kong, but close enough. Side view, you know. And she said that it’s also something she’s been eating a lot because she realized that eating out is so expensive. Okay. That this is like a much cheaper alternative for her.

Jianggan: Right. 

Sabrina: So I think that’s 

Jianggan: And that’s what I think people might be wondering [00:05:00] why we’re talking about this. This episode is actually from a request from a friend, right? Who wants us to talk about why did sort of Meituan’s overseas offshoot, Meituan is the Chinese food delivery platform.

Why did their overseas offshoot Keeta became the number one in Hong Kong within a year in terms of number of orders. And now Keeta is going to Saudi Arabia. And of course, lots of people in the industry across the world are wondering, okay. Can I make it in Saudi Arabia if they can make it work?

Where would they go next? If I’m in company in a particular country, should I be worried? Yeah. So that’s the pretext of this. And of course, we started by talking about Hong Kong, right? So we know that I think it has been a very, very cautious organization. Even if you know that Hong Kong is technically part of China, of course, the system is a bit different.

Even for them to prepare the launch of Hong Kong, they did a lot of work because they know that this is a business model where you need I mean, you basically have three parts of the platform, right? You have the riders, you have the restaurants, you have the consumers, and you need lots of preparations for this platform to [00:06:00] actually work, to actually be able to take off.

 And we felt that. They are focusing a lot on this kind of cheap one person meals. 

Sabrina: Yeah. So when we were looking at some data from how Keeta has sort of overtaken food panda in Hong Kong, we’ve seen that Keeta actually has a much higher order number than it’s competitive food panda. But of course it has a much lower GMV.

And the reason for this is because the AOV of most of. orders are much lower. And I think because when they entered Hong Kong, they use quite a few aggressive promotion campaigns. So just a lot of discounts, maybe free delivery at all. So they seem to really be targeting this late low AOV, but it has been helping them grow because now they’ve overtaken foodpanda in terms of number of orders that they’re actually getting from users.

Jianggan: I think over the years, many analysts have come to us and asking the question that, I mean, Not only Meituan, but many of the Chinese tech players, like even Temu, et cetera. Hey, even Shopee many, many of them came to us and said, Hey, these guys [00:07:00] have very low average order value and the economics will not make sense why they’re doing that.

So the companies with higher average order value would make more sense. And over the years, I mean, initially I was a bit puzzled why people would think this way, right? Because for me, it is natural, right? I mean, of course, when you start in the market, you start from the low, especially when a platform this allows you to more quickly build a critical mass of user base.

 And of course, I mean, for those who have been having a bit exposure in retail and supermarkets, especially you will know that. The low price is always the largest denominator, right? Even people who are relatively affluent, rich, if they can offer them the same thing at a lower price, they will go for it.

 So from that large denominator, they can attract the maximum amount of customers and then they can segment the customers for certain customers. They offer them like no So more premium offerings and gradually for certain customers. They keep the prices low so this is what Meituan has been doing And many analysts thinking that is the AOV is too low because they are just looking at the [00:08:00] snapshot.

Okay, this is what the company is. But if you look at The whole development journey, right if I start from zero Where there’s already incumbent, I think in Hong Kong, it was a food panda and deliver rule Who have already built a market who already have a lots of consumers also sellers of writers How do I convince consumers to order from my platform?

How do I convince sellers to sell? Questions to sell my platform and how do I convince? To, work with me. And of course, a simple way they can do is discounts and vouchers. But the question is that where do they spend the discount and vouchers? I think, I think in Hong Kong, precisely as we just mentioned, right.

There are lots of like people who work in busy settings and who find, okay, the eating out has become too expensive. So that’s a. Segment, which there is a clear demand, it’s not that these people are poor, right? These people are more cost conscious and many of them actually office workers [00:09:00] who have decent income, but who don’t have much time to eat.

So they want something fast. They want something which makes economic sense. So at the end of the day you see that there’s this demand, which is clearly there, which you can tap into and for incumbents is usually hard to fight back. Because they have been sending the stories to investors to everyone saying that, hey, we are a high company for them to lower that.

It takes a lot of gut. That’s true. 

Sabrina: If you’ve been, if you’ve set your AOV at like a certain level to suddenly go down, then your investors would start questioning you, right? And of course, we know Foodpanda is owned by Delivery Hero. 

Jianggan: Yes. Public listed company and one of the most important tech companies from Germany, which doesn’t have a German operations, by the way.

 I think it’s the same story here. As compared to the story between Temu and Amazon. Right. Temu went to the US Mm-Hmm. E-commerce selling goods at a very cheap price. It’s very difficult for Amazon to fight back exactly the same way because Preor, as you said, right.

 You, sorry, in addition to what you said you also alienate some of the [00:10:00] premium customers from whom they can gain more revenue and more profit. 

Sabrina: But we see the same thing kind of happen to companies that start with a low AOV and then when they start moving up at the same time, they might alienate their initial customers.

Right. So it’s something that we’ve seen sort of. I don’t know if it’s something you’ve seen Alibaba do. So they started with Taobao, which is very low AOV. And after they went, they focused a little more in Temu, which is where the brands hire AOV. Do you think that they, but they, for them, they created a separate platform.

So it was a way for them to sort of differentiate, right? You wouldn’t really have to alienate, but for food delivery platform, then it would be a little different. 

Jianggan: So people think of a Taobao and Temu as Two separate platforms, but if you realize if you look, if you examine the traffic, if you examine where the consumer is coming from I think almost like six, seven years after Temu was established.

Most people access Temu through Taobao app. So Taobao is still the common denominator. I mean, people go to Taobao, and if they want cheap stuff, they find, I mean, the [00:11:00] individual sellers on Taobao. And those labeled with the Temu sign would be the ones which are premium, which are branded, et cetera.

So at the end of the day I think I had a discussion with somebody very senior before they said Temu will probably not be able to survive on his own without. So, that’s interesting assessment coming out of China. And of course what they have Alienated potentially over the course of the sort of consumption upgrade in China was the sellers.

I mean, many of the sellers. They are sending goods at a low price. I mean, consumers might want to get it, but sellers don’t get traffic because. Friends have the marketing power brands have to advertise and talk budget. So naturally we gravitate towards the brands. We have seen multiple platforms go through this trajectory, right?

You start with masses, you move up the value chain, but we move up the value chain. You alienate the 

Sabrina: bottom. 

Jianggan: Yeah. So that gives opportunity for others. That’s how Pinduoduo rose. But at the end of the day does it have to be the case? Let’s say the Pinduoduo started with that. Now they are [00:12:00] trying to build brands as well.

Will they alienate their large base of cost conscious consumers? We’ll have to see. I don’t know whether it’s inevitable or whether some somebody has the ability to break the cycle.

Sabrina: We’ll go back to food delivery. 

Let’s try the e commerce site, right? So we were talking about how Meituan started with low AOV in Hong Kong.

Right. And now they’ve sort of, I wouldn’t say they are the market leader in Hong Kong yet, at least based on GMV, but they are pretty close to foodpanda. So based on some data, it actually shows that there are GMV is about Their market GMB now is about 

Jianggan: 36%. Is that from Measurable AI? Yes, 

Sabrina: from Measurable AI.

Jianggan: Great company. Our friends, 

Sabrina: yeah. Our source for this podcast. And it’s been a year since they’ve actually kind of launched in Hong Kong and now they’ve expanded to their second market. I guess third market if the first become china is the first market their third market, which is the kingdom of saudi arabia So this is something we briefly talked about I think in episode 85 of our podcast where I think [00:13:00] delivery It’s called delivery hero loser’s grip.

It’ll be in the show notes below. We talked a little bit about why what makes saudi arabian in appealing market for food delivery platforms, right 

Jianggan: appealing market for food delivery platforms for Meituan in particular because Meituan is Has a great operational capabilities has lots of expertise.

 And the question for them is where they can apply this expertise. So that becomes the highest for them, and especially at this stage, you see, in the early days of global expansion. They want to prove the case. They don’t want to end up in a situation like many other Chinese companies going to many markets the same time and realize that you don’t have enough talent.

You don’t have enough leadership attention organization can’t stop. That’s our kind of support. So you end up being stuck. So I think we try to take a very cautious approach. You mentioned about they are not completely crashing for Panda. In Hong Kong. I think if they want they can. Right. With their resources.

Yes. Yeah. 

Sabrina: But it’s I guess how much coupons or discounts that they will wanna have to how much cash they might have to burn to [00:14:00] reach that stage before they can 

Jianggan: Yes. 

Sabrina: Reduce the cash burn and let the momentum 

Jianggan: And even on top of that, I mean, is from strategic point of view, what would be their higher priority?

So what’s the purpose for them to go to Hong Kong? It’s not to enter Hong. It’s not the Hong Kong market. Because even if the concordance market is like, what, I mean, not as big as average tier two city in China in terms of GME, right? So, but it’s for them to prove a case that I’m able to function in a different market.

Now they are going to a bigger challenge, which is, I mean, Hong Kong at the end of the day is still China speaking, right? 

Sabrina: There’s still a lot of cultural similarities between Hong Kong and Chinese, right? Like food delivery is already. 

Jianggan: Yeah. And also it’s easy for you to send managers to support. And I mean, we sent a manager from the nearby province.

They can speak the same language in Hong Kong. They probably have been to Hong Kong many times. Saudi Arabia is different, right? I mean, the executives of Meituan for them is probably a foreign market. And they need to hire lots of people in the market which will test their management skills, their organizational skills.

 I think they take it very seriously. [00:15:00] They also take it very cautiously. 

Sabrina: But I think what we know about the Mei Tuan leadership team is that they are very cautious. So they’ve probably, they see the potential and they think it’s worth an investment. But I think it’s interesting that you mentioned the challenges Chinese companies face when they go overseas, because it’s something that.

You talk a lot about not just on the podcast, but in your book as well, right? That obviously when you’re expanding your company for Chinese companies, when they go global, it’s often not the product itself, but rather or not, you have the leadership and the right people and organization that can help you expand.

And in terms for Meituan, I feel it’s a little different as well, just because the nature of their business is so operationally heavy. So for example, we’ve seen like Alibaba has expended Pretty decently globally Byte dance with TikTok. And then of course, Timo as well. Timo is now in like 82 countries, right?

Jianggan: 82 as of yesterday, yes. 

Sabrina: 82 countries as of yesterday. So for them, it’s a little easier because a lot of it is maybe on the logistic side of what, but for Meituan, every country that you [00:16:00] expand into, you have to find your fleet of riders. You have to find a fleet of riders. Restaurants that want to sell on your platform.

So I think that makes it a lot harder, right? Because then there’s a lot more parties to take into consideration operationally. You need a lot more bandwidth for your leadership team and your organization 

Jianggan: as well. I think that is why they are, I mean, I’m not sure what the question is the right word for that, but they certainly put lots of attention in each single market that the expanding to.

And now the head of which is made has offices off 20, 

Sabrina: 22. 

Jianggan: Yeah. He, he reports directly to founder watching since I think earlier this year or last year. So basically that removes the constraint of resources because previously, when you have the head of overseas, Reporting to someone who is not a founder you will have a problem of when head of a system, hey, I need this kind of resources and this kind of product configuration, I need this.

And sometimes it’s difficult to be evaluated using the same metrics, right? Because [00:17:00] you know, that even for Saudi Arabia, I mean, country of 36 million people, which The order volume you are going to generate is probably smaller than a district in Beijing. Yeah. You can’t evaluate this market. Mark is using the exact same metrics as we were in China.

 Removing that organizational hurdle, having a founder or co founder directly looking at this, I think makes lots of sense. 

Sabrina: And I think he’s someone who has had experience expending an operationally heavy business overseas. Right. So he used to lead the expansion into Latin America. 

Jianggan: Yeah. That’s quite a feat, right?

I mean, because Didi went into Latin America entered Mexico directly. And acquired a company in Brazil called 99. So, I think DD’s entry in Latin America as a right heading platform has been quite successful. And they managed to build a local team, build a role operations. And many people might not know that DD is probably one of the largest fintech companies in those countries, because I mean, they need to pay their drivers.

They need to like click for payment from their [00:18:00] riders. So they have the. Definite capabilities Tony was leading that that operations for a while. That probably gives him a lot of experience in functioning, in a far away markets from the homeland and try to secure the resources, try to organize the operations.

Sabrina: So that’s why he’s the one, I mean, I think he’s a good person to be leading the expansion into. 

Jianggan: At least I think he would have the, I mean, unlike new manager who has only been operating in China to be sent to a new market, he would have encountered a lot of challenges himself in his previous life. And he would have learned a lot.

And I think probably he respects the market more compared to someone who has never left China. Also, compared to someone who is hired locally in those markets, he would know how to navigate the headquarters. 

Sabrina: The Chinese side of the business, right? 

Jianggan: Yeah, yeah. 

Sabrina: It’s just that they’ve decided to enter Kingdom of Saudi Arabia because last year, there were a couple of rumors about whether or not Meituan one would acquire food, Panda, right?[00:19:00] 

So when we talk about food panel, we are talking about food, Panda in Southeast Asia, we know has been trying to divest its Southeast Asian business for some time. They didn’t sell their Taiwan business to Uber. 

Jianggan: They reached agreement to sell their Taiwan business, which by the way, is the best performing business across the Foodpanda ecosystem.

Yeah. To Uber whether this deal would be approved by regulators in Taiwan is a question mark. So even if it does, it will probably take like 1 or 2 years. At the moment, we look at the BAU for finance still managing it. But the good thing about Taiwan is that the Mekong will probably never go there.

Into Taiwan. Yes. 

Sabrina: So that’s a good, a good market to be in. So how about Korea? Cause I think in the episode, episode 85, when we were talking about delivery hero, we talked a little bit about Baemin as well. Right. And we know that the food delivery scene in Korea is not bad, but. Korea is a kind of different market, right?

They’re kind of like Japan in a sense that if [00:20:00] you want to enter that market, there’s a lot of localization that you have to do. 

Jianggan: I think localization is one thing. So if the market attractive enough, I mean, people are willing to put the effort to figure out localization. I think the case for Korea is that you tend to have a local players, one very, very competitive.

So Deliver Hero bought Wuwa Brothers, which operates Baemin, which was, maybe still is. I’m not sure about the latest numbers. The largest food delivery player in Korea, and it was profitable. So but recent month Baemin has been under lots of pressure from Coupang Eats, basically the food delivery arm of e commerce platform Coupang.

I’m not sure whether it makes sense for Chinese players to enter Korea, because Meituan probably know that you will be facing very strong competitors and the strong competitors who are fighting against each other, and you can see how fierce the battle is. And Also culturally, I think the [00:21:00] Chinese executive will understand that the Korea being, you know, East Asian, they are very sure they’re very, very competitive.

 Unless there’s a good, many opportunities to come up. Well, otherwise, I don’t think it’s going to be their focus. Many people asked me a question, right? I mean, if Meituan managed to establish a foothold in Saudi Arabia, if they managed to become the market number one, which I think the only obstacle for them is how to figure out, I mean, how to manage a bunch of non Chinese executives and and go on workforce.

 If they managed to do that, and what would be next? I would think that you look at a few criteria, right? If you look at the market with good supply and demand dynamics, so good supply of restaurants dense population, lots of demand for food delivery. 

Sabrina: Decent, high spending power.

Jianggan: Decent spending power, which rules most of Southeast Asia out. Then you have a good sort of a labor force and where the cost is manageable. And also another criterion is that you have a local incumbent [00:22:00] who’s very comfortable Comfortably in a sense not that they’re not doing a good job, but they’re not 

Sabrina: Gen or maybe not used to having to compete in such high intensity 

Jianggan: Let me just give you some example.

I mean, for them to move lower, the LV would they feel comfortable if they feel extremely uncomfortable? So they will have the organizational sort of resistance to fight directly against me. Then that will give opportunities for me trying to do it. Yeah. I would think that the next markets could be.

The other parts of the Middle East I know Delivery Hero also owns Talabat, right? 

Sabrina: Yes, so Talabat is in a couple of countries in the Middle East. 

Jianggan: Yes, and I have lots of friends living in Dubai and they use Talabat regularly. And I do think that Dubai is a city which is built very suitable for food delivery, high density residential and office towers, lots of people.

And good spending power and very reasonable labor cost for riders and good supply of restaurants I would think that I mean with Talabat dominating. 

Sabrina: Yeah, 

Jianggan: so I think that would be attractive market for Meituan So I guess that’s probably the reason why I [00:23:00] did where he was putting Talabat for ipo because They will need more financial resources and having that appeal In UAE in dubai itself would probably align some local interests with them as well

Sabrina: So recently, we were looking at the sort of share price of Meituan, right?

So we’re looking at the share price of Meituan, compared to that of Nvidia. And you shared that your friends that made one have told you that they’ve been quite happy this quarter. 

Jianggan: This quarter, this recently just a week during the China’s National Day holidays. Mm-Hmm. because there was stimulus. Yeah.

 And of course that cinema transp price almost double, right? Yeah. Within a week. And this week is, it’s, I mean, everyone’s a bit nervous about whether this is going to last. We filmed this podcast on the ninth of October. October, a day before. China’s top decision making bodies did a press conference where people what anticipated they were dished out a lot more physical stimulus.

They didn’t. And [00:24:00] now there’s a speculation that the regulators or the authorities are afraid of a stock market overheating, but certainly, I mean, Meituan’s price has recovered a lot almost tripled from about a year and a half ago when the reaches its lowest point with all the crackdowns on tech.

 And I can see that many of the executives I know are in a better mood. And what typical happens with tech companies if the stock price is rising, people are more, more motivated. That’s the golden rule. 

Sabrina: That’s a good time to enter a new market when everyone is motivated to work.

Jianggan: Yeah. But then to hire like executives for local markets, I mean, let’s challenge that individual. Yeah. Yeah. 

Sabrina: So I think that’s all for this episode of the impulso podcast. We hope that you guys enjoyed today’s episode and if you did do like, and subscribe to our YouTube channel, Apple podcast, or your preferred podcast platform to stay up to date on the latest happenings and trends in tech, new retail and the broader digital economy.

Jianggan: And if you manage to visit Hong Kong recently and just let us, I mean, just go and try one of the sort of economic rise stores and tell us what do you think? 

Sabrina: Yes. 

Jianggan: Bye bye