With its Q4 2025 quarterly report and full-year financial results due in six days, Meituan had previously issued a significant loss warning. Compared to its 2024 net profit, the company's financial performance has reversed by nearly 60 billion yuan within a year, potentially marking its most challenging period since going public.

Over the past year, Meituan's market capitalization has declined by 60%, and it has now been surpassed by the combined value of JD.com's affiliated companies.

At this critical juncture, Meituan organized a communication session for 2,000 managers, held both online and offline. Wang Xing addressed four key concerns from the capital market:

1. Reducing "Deng" Influence. This refers to inspiring organizational innovation for the AI era, hinting at a new wave of transformation. Signals have been evident recently, including promotions for a group of younger employees, the addition of two new members to the S-team, several veterans moving to background roles, and the ongoing "Beidou Plan."

2. AI Redefining the "Moat." Wang Xing did not avoid discussing AI's impact. He stated that the difference between mobile internet and the internet is like "the difference between a rose and a peony," whereas the difference between AI and the internet is like "the difference between a monkey and a flower." AI agents capable of completing the entire chain for users—comparing prices, placing orders, planning, and fulfillment—directly threaten the value of Meituan's front-end traffic. There is a risk of Meituan's platform being bypassed (OTT). However, he proposed a new positioning. Even the smartest large language models cannot know if a restaurant has available seats at a given moment; this is not an intelligence issue but an information issue. Meituan's rider network, offline merchant system, and real-time location and inventory data are precisely the infrastructure that AI agents rely on. Meituan's competitive moat is being redefined. The company will invest in its own large model research, advance the deployment of drones, autonomous vehicles, and logistics robots, and build a high-fidelity database of physical world information. AI capabilities will permeate all aspects of its consumer, business, and internal operations.

3. Focusing on Instant Retail, Opposing Internal Competition. Meituan will continue to expand based on its mission of "helping everyone eat better and live better." Instant retail is the absolute core, with all resources倾斜ing towards it. The company is firmly opposed to internal competition (involution), will not engage in price wars, and will not burn money for scale.

4. Internationalization: "Resolute but not reckless." Resources will be entirely focused on instant retail, avoiding simultaneous global expansion across all business units and instead fully adopting a "Glocal" strategy.

The market implications of these four points will vary. The combination of points 3 and 4 shows a clear intent to balance growth demands. If subsidies are reduced or stopped, profit metrics are expected to rebound immediately, likely reflected in Q1 results. This could have an immediate impact on the stock price next week. However, the effectiveness of organizational innovation and AI redefinition in driving growth will require continuous validation. While instant retail is the main focus with significant growth potential, numerous competitors will continue to分流 market share. Even if Meituan maintains its advantage through scale effects and AI-driven restructuring, it is not yet clear if this can directly form a new growth flywheel and valuation engine. The positioning of AI in the physical world has not yet demonstrated a more systematic and clear business model. This will determine Meituan's future growth momentum shift, profit structure, and new valuation space.

Wang Xing's overall presentation showed clear defensive tones. A new narrative of "offense" has not yet been formally launched. Next week's earnings call may serve as a prologue and turning point. As it is already mid-March, with Q1 2026 nearly concluded, the company has a quarter's worth of data to support decision-making, providing some basis for full-year guidance.

Overall, Meituan still faces significant pressure. Balancing growth demands will also limit its speed. Returning the stock price and market capitalization to last year's levels is extremely challenging. The company must prepare for a long-term effort.