For years, Wang Xing, the stoic founder of Meituan, relied on a philosophy borrowed from Sun Tzu: victory is often less about one's own strength and more about waiting for the enemy to trip over their own shadows. This strategy of attrition allowed Meituan to emerge as the undisputed king of China’s 'everything app' landscape, outlasting hundreds of rivals in the brutal group-buying and food delivery wars of the last decade. However, the company’s 2025 fiscal report suggests that the 'infinite game' has entered a far more dangerous phase where patience alone may no longer suffice.
The financial toll of defending its territory has been staggering. Meituan reported a net loss of 23.4 billion RMB ($3.2 billion) for 2025, a violent swing from the 35.8 billion RMB profit recorded just a year prior. While revenues grew by a modest 8.1% to 364.9 billion RMB, the company’s gross margin withered from 38.4% to 30.4%. This compression was driven by a desperate surge in marketing expenses, which ballooned by nearly 39 billion RMB as Meituan fought a multi-front war to keep users from defecting to subsidized competitors.
In the high-stakes arena of instant retail, Alibaba’s 'Taobao Flash' has emerged as a far more formidable threat than the cash-strapped startups of the past. Unlike previous skirmishes, this is a battle against an incumbent with deeper pockets and a public mandate to reclaim market share by 2026. While Meituan still commands over 60% of the food delivery market, the cost of maintaining that dominance is rising; the company has been forced to increase subsidies for riders and even raise merchant fees in certain regions, a move that risks alienating its base of restaurant partners.
Simultaneously, the 'in-store' business—historically Meituan's most reliable profit engine—is being hollowed out by a pincer movement from Douyin and Amap. Douyin is leveraging its short-video dominance to trigger impulse purchases, while Alibaba-owned Amap (Gaode) is attacking from a physical dimension. Amap’s 'Sweep List' uses real-time navigation data and foot traffic patterns to create a 'trust-based' ranking system that bypasses the traditional, and often manipulated, review systems that Meituan spent a decade building.
To navigate this crisis, Wang Xing is pivoting Meituan toward a self-operated model, moving beyond being a mere intermediary. The aggressive expansion of Xiaoxiang Supermarket and the $717 million acquisition of Dingdong Maicai signal a shift toward owning the entire supply chain. This is a capital-intensive gamble that mirrors the company’s heavy investment in AI, which Wang believes will eventually transform the service industry from simple 'search and find' into an automated 'do-it-for-me' ecosystem.
Despite these long-term bets, the immediate reality is one of retrenchment. Meituan has shuttered its loss-making community group-buying arm, paused its expansion into high-end hotels, and abruptly scaled back international forays in markets like Brazil. The 'infinite game' in 2026 is no longer about unchecked expansion across every vertical; it is about deciding which hills are worth dying on in an environment where capital is scarce and rivals are no longer tripping themselves up.