Since October 2024, Meituan's stock price has experienced a downward trend. As of the market close on February 13, 2026, Meituan's share price stood at HK$82.15, with its market capitalization briefly falling below HK$500 billion during trading. A company's market capitalization often reflects investor expectations for its future growth. Why has Meituan's market value continued to decline? What factors are influencing market sentiment towards the company?

Following the acquisition of Dingdong (Cayman) Limited's China business, Meituan's market value dropped below the HK$500 billion mark. Why did investors react negatively? On February 5, 2026, Meituan officially announced the acquisition of 100% of Dingdong's China operations for an initial consideration of $717 million (approximately RMB 5 billion). Upon completion, Dingdong will become an indirectly wholly-owned subsidiary of Meituan, with its financials consolidated into Meituan's statements, while its overseas business was divested prior to the deal's closure. After the announcement, Meituan's stock price fell 12% over six trading sessions, declining from HK$93.8 to HK$82.15 per share.

From a strategic perspective, this acquisition is not merely an asset purchase but a defensive move by Meituan to secure its position in the core instant retail market. Reports indicate that JD.com had engaged with Dingdong as early as the third quarter of 2025, aiming to integrate it into its JD Daojia system to strengthen its fresh grocery offerings. Pinduoduo's Duoduomaicai also participated in the bidding, hoping to leverage Dingdong's front-end warehouse network to enhance its next-day delivery service.

For Meituan, if a competitor had acquired Dingdong, Meituan's Elephant Supermarket, which has been cultivated for years in key cities like Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Shenzhen, would have faced intensified competition. Consequently, the acquisition appears more as a risk-averse defensive measure than an opportunistic expansion. Post-acquisition, the competitive landscape remains intense, and rivals persist. The shift seems to position Meituan more as a defender of its turf rather than an aggressive expansionist, leading to concerns about its future growth potential. Against a backdrop of heightened competition, the prolonged downward trend in its stock price reflects investor skepticism about the company's waiting game.

Giants including JD.com, Douyin, and Alibaba are aggressively entering the instant retail space, putting pressure on Meituan's core local commerce profits. The battleground for internet giants has shifted from traditional e-commerce to the final three kilometers of intra-city retail. Once a dominant leader in local services, Meituan now faces multi-pronged competition from JD.com, Douyin, Alibaba, and Ele.me, testing the resilience of its core local commerce "moat."

JD.com's "Instant Delivery" service, backed by a massive subsidy program, is challenging the status quo. In February 2025, JD.com entered the food delivery sector as a new competitor with a strategy of "zero commission + billions in subsidies + rider social security," targeting pain points such as food quality, rider benefits, and merchant fees. It focused on high-value orders and segments like fresh produce and pharmaceuticals, disrupting the long-standing duopoly of Meituan and Ele.me. In 2025, JD.com elevated the strategic importance of instant retail by integrating "JD Hours-Delivery" and "JD Daojia" into "JD Instant Delivery," allocating a primary entry on its app homepage and investing heavily in user subsidies.

Simultaneously, Douyin's lifestyle services are rapidly gaining market share through a combination of price wars and content-driven engagement. Unlike Meituan's utility-based approach, Douyin stimulates spontaneous "interest-based instant consumption" through live streams and short videos. This year, it further upgraded its "Nearby" channel, placing group-buying delivery and instant retail on equal footing. Industry analysts note that users browsing videos might impulsively decide to purchase flowers or fruit, a behavior difficult for traditional e-commerce and food delivery platforms to intercept. Douyin is leveraging subsidies to convert its traffic advantage into instant retail orders, with its low-price strategy particularly appealing to price-sensitive students and young professionals.

Alibaba has defined Taobao Quick Deals as a milestone campaign for the group. Alibaba is also advancing aggressively, with Ele.me being repositioned as a key player in Alibaba's near-field retail strategy, deepening synergies with Amap and Taoxianda. Meanwhile, Hema Fresh reintroduced a membership model and reinforced its "30-minute delivery within three kilometers" service promise, further squeezing the growth potential of Meituan's Elephant Supermarket. According to reports, Alibaba's core management encouraged teams in early 2026 to aggressively pursue the quick deals segment without concerns over losses for three years. Alibaba's founder emphasized that Taobao Quick Deals represents a pivotal battle for the group, with investments in 2026 expected to exceed the previous year, focusing squarely on instant retail.

In response to irrational competition in the food delivery sector, Meituan's core local commerce segment has significantly increased direct subsidies for the restaurant industry. This contributed to the segment's operating profit turning negative in the third quarter of 2025, with a loss of nearly RMB 14.1 billion.