Lifestyle services platform Meituan Dianping surged more than 6 percent on its debut in the Hong Kong stock exchange on Thursday.
Meituan opened at HK$72 (US$9.18), raising US$4.9 billion after setting its offering price at HK$69 apiece — investors are betting on the growth potential of online lifestyle services platform.
Meituan Chief Executive Officer Wang Xing thanked Meituan's 340 million users, 4.7 million merchants across the country, and 600,000 delivery staff, as well as the mobile Internet era that brought Meituan to its position today.
The company's total revenue in 2017 was 33.9 billion yuan, nearly tripling from 13 billion yuan in 2016.
In the 12 months ended April this year, the number of transactions on Meituan exceeded 6.9 billion, with transaction size reaching 410 billion yuan.
It has been expanding service from food delivery to include ordering groceries, booking hotels, paying bills and renting bikes.
According to mobile Internet research firm Trustdata, the overall market size of China's on-demand food delivery is expected to reach 360 billion yuan by the end of this year.
The battle is also heating up after Alibaba said last month it raised US$3 billion for its local services unit, which put together on-demand delivery site Ele.me with Koubei online consumer service.
To differentiate their service, some suggest they target various consumer groups' behaviors to ensure long-term growth, and on-demand delivery sites are also providing subsidies to retain users.
"For example, co-branding campaigns with video or gaming platforms could be a good idea, as ordering delivery usually means people choose to stay at home to binge-watch dramas or play video games," said Angie Wong, managing director of Leo Burnett Shanghai.
