Meituan's total revenue in 2025 increased by 8.1% to 364.9 billion yuan, with a full-year net loss of 23.4 billion yuan.

Question AI · Why did Meituan’s revenue growth still result in a huge loss?

On March 26, news broke that Meituan today announced its annual performance for the year ending December 31, 2025. The data shows that the company’s total revenue for 2025 was 364.9 billion yuan, an increase of 8.1% compared to 337.6 billion yuan in 2024. However, Meituan recorded a loss of 23.4 billion yuan in 2025, while it had a profit of 35.8 billion yuan in 2024.

Significant Changes in Financial Data

According to the performance announcement, Meituan’s operating loss for the entire year of 2025 was 25 billion yuan, with a loss rate of 6.9%. In the same period of 2024, Meituan’s operating profit was 36.8 billion yuan, with a profit margin of 10.9%.

The core local business segment saw a significant change. This segment recorded an operating loss of 6.9 billion yuan in 2025, while in 2024 it had an operating profit of 52.4 billion yuan. The operating loss of the new business segment expanded from 7.3 billion yuan in 2024 to 10.1 billion yuan in 2025.

As of December 31, 2025, Meituan’s cash and cash equivalents and short-term investment holdings were 106.8 billion yuan and 60.1 billion yuan, respectively.

Fourth Quarter Revenue Growth but Increased Losses

In the fourth quarter of 2025, Meituan’s revenue was 92.1 billion yuan, an increase of 4.1% compared to 88.5 billion yuan in the same period of 2024. However, the quarter recorded an operating loss of 16.1 billion yuan, while in the same period of 2024, it had an operating profit of 6.7 billion yuan.

The core local business segment’s revenue for the fourth quarter of 2025 was 64.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 1.1%; the operating loss was 10 billion yuan, while in the same period of 2024, it had an operating profit of 12.9 billion yuan. The new business segment’s revenue was 27.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 18.9%; the operating loss was 4.6 billion yuan, which was an increase from 2.2 billion yuan in the same period of 2024.

Significant Increase in Costs and Expenses

Meituan’s total sales cost for 2025 was 253.8 billion yuan, accounting for 69.6% of revenue, an increase of 8.0 percentage points from 61.6% in 2024. Sales and marketing expenses were 102.9 billion yuan, accounting for 28.2% of revenue, an increase of 9.2 percentage points from 19.0% in 2024. Research and development expenses were 26 billion yuan, accounting for 7.1% of revenue, an increase of 0.9 percentage points from 6.2% in 2024.