London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 30, 2025

Chinese food delivery apps face a backlash from restaurants – tired of the high commission they charge, some build their own digital platforms for takeaway orders

An open letter by a restaurant association revealed Meituan levies commission of up to 23 per cent, while Ele.me takes up to 20 per cent of each order. More restaurants in China are creating their own online platforms and using all-goods delivery companies to get takeaway orders to customers instead

For Mike Wong, the owner of a restaurant called Hong Kong Grassroots Canteen with two branches in Beijing, takeaway service has long been something of a headache.

In China, the delivery app Meituan Dianping and its rival Ele.me (owned by Alibaba Group, the parent company of the South China Morning Post) dominate meal delivery services. Users log on to the apps and order from the restaurants listed. Wong says Meituan charges a minimum of 20 per cent commission on each order – a significant amount for a small business.

“My profit margin is only 10 to 15 per cent. So for a takeaway order, all my profits have to be given to Meituan.

“In Beijing, many people order takeaways [even if it’s just] a cup of milk tea or a bowl of wonton noodles. The commission amount is across the board and doesn’t differentiate according to meal size or the distance covered by the delivery rider. The app takes the order and the money, and they keep the money for up to a month, which affects my cash flow. It’s a very unfair deal which is enforced upon us.”

Wong has started using FlashEx, an intracity delivery service provider which delivers all kinds of goods, to get his takeaway orders to his customers instead.

“In Australia [where Wong has also lived], clients pay extra for takeaways. In China, if you increase the cost of a takeaway meal, they will go away. So, I pay for the delivery charge using FlashEx, which charges by the distance covered by the driver. It costs around 10 yuan [US$1.41] for distances within 5km (3.1 miles). It’s much cheaper than Meituan.”

Wong is among a growing number of restaurant owners in China rebelling against what they call the “hegemony” of China’s dominant takeaway apps.

A recent report by data analytics platform the Data Centre of China Internet (DCCI) found that almost half of the country’s internet users used online delivery services last year, with 67 per cent being regular users of Meituan.

Criticism has grown more intense because of the Covid-19 pandemic, with restaurants being hit hard by business suspensions, staff exoduses and a tanking economy. In April, the Guangdong Restaurant Association published an open letter to Meituan, urging it to slash commission on deliveries and to drop what it calls unfair terms that require restaurants to sign exclusively with its platform.

In February, restaurant associations in the southwestern city of Chongqing, as well as in Hebei, Yunnan and Shandong provinces, all separately published open letters calling for commission reductions from Meituan and Ele.me. The letter from Shandong revealed that Meituan charges restaurant chains commission of 18 per cent and smaller businesses a 23 per cent commission, while Ele.me’s commission ranges from 15 per cent to 20 per cent of each order.

According to the letter, the commission Meituan charges is higher if restaurants want to work with other platforms.

A restaurateur who owns a sour and spicy noodle shop in Beijing, and who wishes to remain anonymous, has started putting a card inside each takeaway meal bag to increase direct orders. The noodle shop owner says the card includes the shop’s phone number, social media accounts and a 10 per cent discount offer.

“We get our own staff to deliver the meal. During the pandemic, when we were closed for [on-site dining] business, we took pictures of our dishes and set up an online order platform for takeaways. We didn’t have time to digitise in the past. We also put videos of how we cook the noodles onto video apps like Douyin to promote our shop. If we can build up a big enough customer base, we can stop using those [delivery] apps altogether.”

Liu Jingjing, founder of congee chain Porridge Jiahe, which has more than 100 outlets across China, told Chinese media it had upgraded its delivery app, which allows staff to interact directly with customers.

“This saves us the commission charged by delivery platforms, which can be used to benefit the customers. We have signed up more than two million members. We outsource the delivery service to [all-goods delivery firm] Dada,” Liu says.

A spokesman for Meituan said that. in 2019, more than three million merchants received takeaway orders through the app, with more than 80 per cent of restaurants paying commission from 10 to 20 per cent.

“The actual figure [charged] is much lower than rumoured … user experience, value for merchants and riders’ incomes have always come before the profitability of delivery platforms.

“After the launch of Meituan Waimai [which translates as “delivery”], we lost money for five consecutive years. Even in 2019, when we broke even, the average profit per delivery order was less than 0.2 yuan in the fourth quarter, accounting for two per cent of the revenue.

“We invest most of our income on helping merchants develop professional delivery services, acquiring orders and improving digital infrastructure.

“During the pandemic, for merchants affected by the pandemic, we gave back no less than three to five per cent of the commission. More than 600,000 merchants [benefited from this].

“For merchants in Wuhan, the commission was waived from February until the lockdown of the city was lifted … for Guangdong, so far, the amount of rebate we gave back to merchants, and other subsidies, amounts to more than 100 million yuan.” The lockdown of Wuhan, where the first coronavirus infections appeared in December, was lifted in April.

A spokesman for Ele.me said it has reduced or waived commission four times since the pandemic began, and supports restaurants by providing them with free advertising resources, such as on outdoor billboards, hotel TVs and other channels. Its other measures have been aimed at helping the sector ride out the pandemic.

“These include providing free lessons on self-survival for the sector, and the launch of a platform to help restaurant service staff switch to working as delivery riders [should they not find work following pandemic-triggered closures].”

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
UK and Vietnam Sign Landmark Migration Deal to Fast-Track Returns of Irregular Arrivals
UK Drug-Pricing Overhaul Essential for Life-Sciences Ambition, Says GSK Chief
Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie Temporarily Leave the UK Amid Their Parents’ Royal Fallout
UK Weighs Early End to Oil and Gas Windfall Tax as Reeves Seeks Investment Commitments
UK Retail Inflation Slows as Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since Spring
Next Raises Full-Year Profit Guidance After Strong Third-Quarter Performance
Reform UK’s Lee Anderson Admits to 'Gaming' Benefits System While Advocating Crackdown
United States and South Korea Conclude Major Trade Accord Worth $350 Billion
Hurricane Melissa Strikes Cuba After Devastating Jamaica With Record Winds
Vice President Vance to Headline Turning Point USA Campus Event at Ole Miss
U.S. Targets Maritime Narco-Routes While Border Pressure to Mexico Remains Limited
Bill Gates at 70: “I Have a Real Fear of Artificial Intelligence – and Also Regret”
Elon Musk Unveils Grokipedia: An AI-Driven Alternative to Wikipedia
Saudi Arabia Unveils Vision for First-Ever "Sky Stadium" Suspended Over Desert Floor
Amazon Announces 14 000 Corporate Job Cuts as AI Investment Accelerates
UK Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since March, Food Leads the Decline
London Stock Exchange Group ADR (LNSTY) Earns Zacks Rank #1 Upgrade on Rising Earnings Outlook
Soap legend Tony Adams, long-time star of Crossroads, dies at 84
Rachel Reeves Signals Tax Increases Ahead of November Budget Amid £20-50 Billion Fiscal Gap
NatWest Past Gains of 314% Spotlight Opportunity — But Some Key Risks Remain
UK Launches ‘Golden Age’ of Nuclear with £38 Billion Sizewell C Approval
UK Announces £1.08 Billion Budget for Offshore Wind Auction to Boost 2030 Capacity
UK Seeks Steel Alliance with EU and US to Counter China’s Over-Capacity
UK Struggles to Balance China as Both Strategic Threat and Valued Trading Partner
Argentina’s Markets Surge as Milei’s Party Secures Major Win
British Journalist Sami Hamdi Detained by U.S. Authorities After Visa Revocation Amid Israel-Gaza Commentary
King Charles Unveils UK’s First LGBT+ Armed Forces Memorial at National Memorial Arboretum
At ninety-two and re-elected: Paul Biya secures eighth term in Cameroon amid unrest
Racist Incidents Against UK Nurses Surge by 55%
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves Cites Shared Concerns With Trump Administration as Foundation for Early US-UK Trade Deal
Essentra plc: A Closer Look at a UK ‘Penny Stock’ Opportunity Amid Market Weakness
U.S. and China Near Deal to Avert Rare-Earth Export Controls Ahead of Trump-Xi Summit
Justin time: Justin Herbert Shields Madison Beer with Impressive Reflex at Lakers Game
Russia’s President Putin Declares Burevestnik Nuclear Cruise Missile Ready for Deployment
Giuffre’s Memoir Alleges Maxwell Claimed Sexual Act with Clooney
House Republicans Move to Strip NYC Mayoral Front-Runner Zohran Mamdani of U.S. Citizenship
Record-High Spoiled Ballots Signal Voter Discontent in Ireland’s 2025 Presidential Election
Philippines’ Taal Volcano Erupts Overnight with 2.4 km Ash Plume
Albania’s Virtual AI 'Minister' Diella Set to 'Birth' Eighty-Three Digital Assistants for MPs
Tesla Unveils Vision for Optimus V3 as ‘Biggest Product of All Time’, Including Surgical Capabilities
Francis Ford Coppola Auctions Luxury Watches After Self-Financed Film Flop
Convicted Sex Offender Mistakenly Freed by UK Prison Service Arrested in London
United States and China Begin Constructive Trade Negotiations Ahead of Trump–Xi Summit
U.S. Treasury Sanctions Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro over Drug-Trafficking Allegations
Miss USA Crowns Nebraska’s Audrey Eckert Amid Leadership Overhaul
‘I Am Not Done’: Kamala Harris Signals Possible 2028 White House Run
NBA Faces Integrity Crisis After Mass Arrests in Gambling Scandal
Swift Heist at the Louvre Sees Eight French Crown Jewels Stolen in Under Seven Minutes
U.S. Halts Trade Talks with Canada After Ontario Ad Using Reagan Voice Triggers Diplomatic Fallout
Microsoft AI CEO: ‘We’re making an AI that you can trust your kids to use’ — but can Microsoft rebuild its own trust before fixing the industry’s?
×