China’s food-delivery price war sees Meituan, Alibaba, JD.com incur $14B in costs across two quarters

Heavy subsidy spending in China’s food-delivery battle led Meituan to report a 19.8 billion yuan ($2.7 billion) operating loss in the third quarter of 2025, its largest since listing. Alibaba’s operating profit fell from 35.2 billion yuan to 5.4 billion yuan ($4.9 billion to $0.75 billion), while JD.com recorded a 10.5 billion yuan ($1.4 billion) operating loss in the same quarter after reducing spending.

The three companies incurred more than 100 billion yuan ($14 billion) in costs across the second and third quarters of this year due to delivery subsidies and related sales expenses. Meituan’s sales expenses exceeded those of Pinduoduo despite lower transaction volume. Alibaba said Taobao Instant Commerce reached a 40 percent GMV share in restaurant delivery under a two-player market definition. [LatePost, in Chinese]