Meituan is becoming a “reservoir” for employment. Recently, Meituan CEO Wang Xing issued an internal letter to all employees. It is mentioned that there will be approximately 7.45 million riders earning income on the Meituan platform in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 19.4%

Meituan is becoming a “reservoir” for employment.

Recently, Meituan CEO Wang Xing sent an internal letter to all employees. It is mentioned that there will be approximately 7.45 million riders earning income on the Meituan platform in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 19.4%.

Perhaps another way of saying it is more intuitive.

From 2020 to 2022, the number of riders who receive income from Meituan are 4.7 million, 5.27 million and 6.24 million respectively. In other words, if refers to the growth rate of riders in the past two years, by the end of this year, this number will most likely exceed 8.5 million.

Note that this is just a platform of Meituan.

According to the "2023 Ele.me Riders Rights Protection Report", there will be more than 4 million active riders on the Ele.me platform in 2023. In other words, the two major platforms combined will have a cumulative number of more than 11 million riders.

It was previously rumored that among the 7.45 million riders in Meituan, there are 300,000 undergraduates and 80,000 graduate students. Although the rumors have been officially refuted, food delivery riders are increasingly becoming more highly educated and have become the focus of attention of the whole society. This internal letter to all employees also mentioned that in the past three years, Meituan has recruited an average of more than 5,000 fresh graduates every year, and plans to recruit 6,000 in 2025.

In addition, there is another number that is more controversial.

In 2023, food delivery riders will receive more than 80 billion in remuneration on the Meituan platform, In other words, each rider will earn more than 10,000 yuan per person. Frankly speaking, the Meituan riders mentioned by Meituan this time include many part-time jobs, even if they only deliver one order, they are included, so they cannot be regarded as the real income of Meituan riders.

However, it also reflects two realities.

First, a large number of people with flexible employment have joined the rider camp, and the number of Meituan riders continues to increase; second, with the substantial growth of the rider group, even full-time riders may not have a high income and it is very hard;

Note that the huge increase in the number of Meituan riders is also a true reflection of the social economy.

Taking Beijing as an example, in the first half of this year, the total profit of the catering industry above designated size in Beijing was .18 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 88.8%, and the profit margin was only 0.37%. The only outstanding ones were catering distribution and takeout delivery services. Operating income increased by 8.4% year-on-year.

As a result, there is a saying that "China's catering industry is suffering, but Meituan's days are getting better and better."

In the second quarter of this year, Meituan’s operating income was 82.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 21%; its adjusted net profit was 13.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 77.6%. Calculated based on the net profit of 13.6 billion yuan in the second quarter, Meituan’s average daily profit is 150 million yuan.

In its second quarter financial report, Meituan also disclosed a number: The number of instant delivery transactions reached 6.167 billion, a year-on-year increase of 14.2%.

In the subsequent conference call, Meituan CFO stated that the single-day peak order volume for timely delivery on August 7 reached a record high, and it is expected that the peak single-day order transaction volume may exceed 100 million orders during the peak season next year.

focus on two data.

In the second quarter of this year, Meituan’s “delivery service” revenue was 23.02 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13%; “commission” revenue was 22.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 20%; “online marketing services” revenue was 12.26 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 20%.

Obviously, Meituan has not been affected by the sluggish consumption and declining revenue in the catering industry.

Meituan officials also added that the growth in online marketing service revenue was mainly due to the increase in the number of merchants active in online marketing. In other words, market competition has become more intense, forcing merchants to increase marketing expenses; in other words, takeout merchants may not make money, but the platform will definitely make money.

We are not criticizing Meituan, because the main reason is that the general environment is not optimistic.

According to data from the Ministry of Transport, As of May 31, the number of online ride-hailing drivers nationwide exceeded 7 million, while at the end of last year, the number was 6.57 million. Due to the surge in online ride-hailing drivers, starting from 2023, more and more cities will issue online ride-hailing saturation warnings, reminding practitioners to be cautious about "entering the market."

In addition, there is another thing worth mentioning.

On September 13, BYD brand general manager revealed on Weibo that BYD’s total number of employees exceeded 900,000, an increase of nearly 200,000 in less than 9 months, which is 1.5 times that of 2022.

At this stage, we should not accuse Meituan of squeezing merchants and riders, nor should we say that BYD is a sweatshop. The wages of ordinary workers are pitifully low, but we should be grateful. At least they have provided more jobs to the society. Otherwise, Everyone’s employment pressure will be greater.