TikTok surges, Meituan fights back
As Douyin gradually expands its presence in local life, players such as Meituan have also begun to come up with their own counterattack strategies. So when Douyin and Meituan are investing more resources to encourage merchants to make live broadcasts and short videos, how do catering merchants and service providers think about it? Let’s take a look at the interpretation of this article.
Meituan and Douyin are in close combat, HE Tuber and the competition for B-side merchants has become increasingly fierce. As Douyin launched a fierce attack and formed a large network in local life, Meituan also began to fight back.
After Douyin won over a group of catering merchants with a 2.5% platform deduction, Meituan also reduced the deduction for some catering merchants from 8% (10% for vouchers) to 4%. In order to compete for leading catering merchants, it even signed a three-month exclusive agreement with the merchants: the merchants’ package prices on Douyin cannot be lower than Meituan’s, or they may simply go offline on Douyin.
Competition has brought unexpected chaos to businesses
but considering that Meituan is the dominant player in the local lifestyle field, this chaos seems to herald hope. Emerging platforms have increased exposure opportunities for merchants and reached out to young people, and also forced Meituan to update its products, provide profits to merchants, and "accompany the growth of the enterprise."
However, even if the heroes increase their investment
businesses may not be able to "win". Meituan once relied on local promotion teams to expand the market, while Douyin hopes to expand the market through third-party service providers. The influx of a large number of service providers may push up the operating costs of merchants on Douyin. A merchant told Yibang Power that, combined with commissions from service providers and experts, the merchant’s marketing expense ratio on Douyin has exceeded 20%.
In addition, a new round of competition in local life has escalated
Meituan and Douyin are investing more resources to encourage businesses to make live broadcasts and short videos, which is a new capability for them. "Two days ago, the regional director of Meituan came to me specifically and said that he would help me get resources to go live on the live broadcast." A merchant told Ebrun Power, "These were unimaginable before."
What is the attitude of merchants in this regard? What coping strategies do they have? The following is a dialogue between Yibang Power and catering merchants and service providers, compiled by editors:
