China’s food delivery leader Meituan Dianping warned that its first-quarter revenue would shrink as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, which has halted the operations of restaurants, hotels and local businesses that rely on its “everything app” for deliveries and bookings.
On Monday the company reported that it had turned an annual profit for the first time last year, before the virus began to severely affect business in China, making Rmb2.2bn ($315m) and becoming the third-largest listed Chinese tech company by market capitalisation.
Meituan’s yellow-jacketed couriers zipping around city streets on scooters have become synonymous with the rapid growth of the online food delivery market in China.