On February 2nd, Meituan CEO Wang Xing announced a business adjustment within the company.

From the internal letters circulating online, it can be seen that Wang Xing's adjustment to Meituan mainly includes the following three aspects:

Firstly, the Meituan platform, in store, at home, and basic research and development will be handled by Wang Puzhong, Senior Vice President of Meituan; Secondly, Zhang Chuan, Senior Vice President of Meituan, will be responsible for Dianping, SaaS, cycling, and power banks; The third is to report drones and overseas business directly to Wang Xing.

The most eye-catching aspect of this adjustment is that Meituan has transferred the in store business group previously managed by Zhang Chuan to Wang Puzhong.

According to public information, Wang Puzhong, the current Senior Vice President of Meituan, joined Meituan in April 2015. He has since served as Senior Product Director for Takeout Delivery, Head of Takeout Business Unit and Delivery Business Unit, and Vice President of the Group. In January 2018, Wang Puzhong was promoted to the youngest senior vice president of Meituan Group. In October of the same year, Meituan announced the establishment of the Daojia Business Group, and Wang Puzhong was also appointed as the President of Meituan Daojia Business Group at that time. In March 2020, Meituan Home Business Group underwent a new round of organizational adjustments, and Wang Puzhong returned to the front line to personally lead the delivery business.

Zhang Chuan joined Meituan in 2017, and after joining, he began serving as the President of Meituan Platform and Comprehensive Business Group. In May of the same year, Zhang Chuan also served as the head of the advertising platform. In December 2017, Meituan announced the establishment of the in store business group and appointed Zhang Chuan as the president of the in store business group. In October 2021, Zhang Chuan also served as the head of the Cycling Business Unit and the Power Bank Business Unit.

This time, Meituan has assigned the in store and in home business groups to the same person in charge, in order to cope with the changes in the local living industry in the Chinese market. With the entry of Tiktok and other platforms, the market competition in the local life industry has become increasingly fierce. According to the research report issued by Haitong International last October, Meituan's share price is still under pressure even though it has exceeded its performance. The difference reflects the impact of capital market concerns about Tiktok competition on valuation multiples.

Haitong International mentioned in the research paper that, in terms of the local life business, Tiktok's GTV will be 200 billion yuan in 2023, and Tiktok has reached one third of Meituan, and the store arrival has contributed a lot to this data. Although there are still many problems in the development of Tiktok's local life business, such as scalping, it has obviously posed a threat to Meituan. Whether Wang Puzhong can lead the Meituan to win this battle is still unknown.

Since the beginning of this year, Meituan's stock price has continued its decline from last year and fell below the initial offering price of HKD 69 on January 17th. On February 2nd, Meituan closed down 1.33% at HKD 63.25, a decrease of approximately 23% from the beginning of the year. Currently, Meituan's market value is only HKD 395 billion, far from its peak of HKD 2.4 trillion, and Meituan has entered its darkest moment.

At the end of this internal letter, Wang Xing said to internal employees, "Currently, there are various challenges both internally and externally, but at the same time, this is also an opportunity for the company to further grow. We believe that we can gather strength, improve efficiency, and better serve customers. Let's work hard together!"