"later LatePost" learned exclusively that recently, Meituan broke up the intelligent transportation platform, which was established less than a year ago. The two major business departments of taxi hailing and unmanned vehicle distribution under the platform are independent, respectively, by Zhang Xingyuan and Xia Huaxia, both of whom report to CEO Wang Xing; visual intelligence is merged into the basic R & D platform; the map is returned to the Meituan platform.

Xia Huaxia was previously in charge of the entire intelligent transportation platform, and he has been in this position for less than a year. In December 2020, when Meituan co-founder Wang Huiwen officially retired, the intelligent transportation platform was set up, including taxi-hailing, mapping, unmanned vehicle distribution, visual intelligence and other services.

As the taxi-hailing business became independent, Rocky rose from business FM (function manager) to BM (business manager). Zhang Xingyuan was born in 1987, joined Meituan in 2013, and Gao Yulong, who was recently appointed head of the fast donkey division, is also post-85-Meituan's management team is becoming younger.

Taxi-hailing is a relatively frequent business within Meituan-it has been in operation for more than 4 years, has experienced five responsible persons, and has undergone three changes in its business model, with its importance declining from strategic level to exploratory business.

Meituan started a pilot operation in Nanjing in February 2017, and the first person in charge was Li Yang. He entered Shanghai a year later and plans to expand into six cities. After a period of aggressive subsidies, Meituan did not see a big breakthrough opportunity to change the pattern, which made Meituan's attitude towards ride-hailing business from firm to wait-and-see.

At the end of 2018, Li Yang transferred to charge of cycling business, and Meituan welcomed its second head, Gao Yan. During Gao Yan's tenure, Meituan turned to aggregation mode. In April 2019, Meituan launched an online aggregation model in Nanjing and Shanghai, connected to travel service providers such as SAIC car booking, Cao Cao Travel, and Shenzhou Premier car, and has since expanded to many cities.

At the end of 2019, Gao Yan was transferred to the Little Elephant Business Department, and Meituan was transferred to Wang Huiwen by taxi. A Meituan person said that the biggest change Wang Huiwen brought to taxi-hailing during this period was to sort out the organization. During the same period, Meituan set up the SOD (Strategy operation department) department of Standard Didi, namely Meituan Taxi supply and demand Operation Department. The supply and demand operation department carried the gtv (total transaction volume) target, and Wang Huiwen found the main responsible person for the main goal of taking a taxi, making the powers and responsibilities of each department clearer.

At this stage, the core goal of Meituan car-hailing has also shifted from expansion to improving gross profit and controlling losses.

Soon Meituan ushered in a more important and urgent battle than taking a taxi. In 2020, community group buying became Meituan's strategic business. Meituan chose to set up an independent business department in July, led by Senior Vice President Chen Liang.

A person from Meituan reported that at a S-team (top decision-making level of Meituan) meeting at the end of 2020, Wang Xing raised a question: if Meituan's goal of taxi hailing is 2 million units per day, what strategy should be adopted? At that time, an attendee put forward an idea of opening 10 self-operated cities, and the unit volume might reach 2 million. In response, Wang Huiwen humorously said: "it is better to leave the money to the preferred brothers, they need it more than we do." "

In July 2021, there were new changes in the market. At that time, DiDi Global Inc. was subject to regulatory scrutiny. Chinese users could not download DiDi Global Inc. 's taxi-hailing app in the mobile app store, and drivers could not register their account through DiDi Global Inc. 's driver app.

Meituan car-hailing saw growth opportunities and a clearer implementation path. From the perspective of business performance, Meituan vacillated between aggregation and self-management mode in the past, and this time, Meituan's focus began to shift to self-management. Due to the large manpower gap, Meituan not only dismantled part of the aggregate capacity line to be self-employed, but also removed more than 100 RD (R & D) from the selection to support taxi-hailing.

It is reported that the average daily order volume of Meituan's taxi-hailing is about 1 million in October, while Gaode taxi-hailing exceeds 5 million. Meituan has no significant growth compared with July, and the gap between Gaode and Gaode has widened.

A number of Meituan people interviewed by "later LatePost" said that Meituan changed the person in charge several times and lost continuity in decision-making when choosing between self-management and aggregation mode. On the contrary, Gaode has a clear train of thought, no muddling in decision-making, and the strategy of adhering to the platform model has not changed. At the same time, DiDi Global Inc. 's boots have not yet landed, and market and policy uncertainties have limited Meituan's actions. If there are great opportunities in the future market, Meituan taxi-hailing may have more positive action.