Has Meituan been involved in the yellow border again?

Tech 2023-05-15 10:55:56 Source: Network

At present, "scraping the edge" has become a traffic password that attracts attention. While being roast of being vulgar, platform businesses (or brand ads) also have their own "memory points" by virtue of edging

At present, "scraping the edge" has become a traffic password that attracts attention. While being roast of being vulgar, platform businesses (or brand ads) also have their own "memory points" by virtue of edging.

However, it is somewhat surprising that a platform with a monthly active user base of up to 700 million has been exposed as "marginalized". Today we are going to talk about the essential Meituan app for young people today.

According to official data,The Meituan App had 693 million transaction users and 9 million active merchants in the first half of 2022.With such a large user and merchant base, why does Meituan still have to "brush aside"?

Repeated appearance of "spicy eye" merchants

Some netizens have discovered that there seems to be a "playing edge ball" on the Meituan App.

It is said that clicking on the "Novelty Experience" section on the homepage of the Meituan APP will bring up many merchants with covers and avatars that are quite eye-catching.

On the promotional pages of these merchants, services such as "soothing and decompression" and "double body massage" are displayed.

In the screenshot of the online video, when a netizen asked if a store was a "place for men to unwind", the merchant replied "yes" and also said "there is a technician who will introduce you".

Image source: Weibo netizens

In other media reports, by searching for the "Novelty Experience" section, it was found that recommended merchants include real person CS, skydiving clubs, pig clubs, and emotional stress relief centers.

Among them, some stores named "Stress Alley" use photos of women as display icons and do not specify their business scope.

A netizen asked "what is this for", but the merchant did not reply. At the same time, on the health and wellness massage package webpage of some stores, the accompanying picture reads "exclusive to adults".

It is reported that the suspected "edge scraping" merchant exposed by netizens is an immersive themed SPA store under a certain category.

From the screenshot displayed, it can be seen that the group buying packages provided in the store include "Instant Japanese Enjoyment SPA Package" and "Soft Eared Meow Meow Japanese Full Body SPA", with prices ranging from 200 to 1400 yuan.

According to the Meituan page, the store is open all day from Monday to Sunday. When netizens called the customer service hotline of the store to inquire, they received a response of "not open" and hung up the phone.

In the eyes of most netizens,The existence of such "edge scraping" merchants is due to poor platform auditing.

With the ferment of public opinion, Meituan customer service has appeared and replied that the platform attaches great importance to it. Currently, relevant staff are following up and handling it.

Business has changed its flavor

At the beginning of 2021, there were also incidents related to "edge scraping" on the Meituan App.

At that time, Mr. Wu from Jinhua, Zhejiang claimed that his store in Meituan had been suddenly taken off the shelves, hoping to receive a refund of 12800 yuan from the platform.

This demand does not seem inappropriate. However, Mr. Wu's online store is a bit special. Because he runs an offline store for adult products that allows customers to experience imported silicone dolls from Japan.

Mr. Wu's store had only been in operation for three months after entering the Meituan platform in September and paying an annual fee and promotion fee of 12800 yuan, but was suddenly taken off the platform.

Source: Xiaoqiang Hotline

In Mr. Wu's opinion, his store has obtained a business license from the local market supervision department. If Meituan believes that it cannot go online, he should also provide a reason.

Media contacted the staff of Meituan. The staff stated that it is the regulatory authorities who require all adult experience centers to be taken offline, and all online stores nationwide need to be rectified, not targeting Mr. Wu's family.

Subsequently, some netizens found through search that entering the word "adult" did indeed block many stores.

However, if the keyword input is changed to "experience hall", the online store operation will still be carried out, and the content displayed on the webpage has a clear directionality.

After adding the merchant's WeChat account, the other party sent detailed business information. Netizens believe that the entire process of transferring from the Meituan platform to booking offline store consumption is still smooth.

Regarding this, Meituan provides an explanation:Some of the stores left on the platform are considered loopholes, and supervision will be strengthened in the future. If one store is found during the search, it will be taken down.

In fact, the supervision of such stores belongs to the gray zone. Although there is no explicit prohibition, the exposed problems are becoming increasingly apparent, such as dirty and disorderly environment, and minors can freely enter and exit.

Even some businesses have gradually transformed their operations into a place for special services under the guise of adult experience.

Conversion efficiency of consumption scenarios

It seems that the "edge scraping" on the Meituan App has been repeatedly banned. For a platform with hundreds of millions of monthly active users and millions of takeout riders, why is "scraping the edge"?

According to the latest financial report,Meituan's total revenue in the third quarter of 2022 was RMB 62.62 billion, a year-on-year increase of 28.2%,The adjusted net profit reached RMB 3.52 billion.

This data, compared to a net loss of 15.6 billion yuan in 2021, should give the head of Meituan a sigh of relief.

After all, Meituan experienced the darkest moments several times in 2021.

Image source: Meituan Weibo

Whether it is the penalty of 3.4 billion yuan for the "two choice monopoly" behavior, or the huge investment in new business, as well as the adjustment of delivery riders and platform commission policies, Meituan faces even greater cost pressure.

So, Meituan willReduce costs and increase efficiencyAs a key proposition, starting from the fourth quarter of 2021, we will slow down the expansion speed of some business lines and gradually optimize the business profit model.

Consumers familiar with Meituan should know that Meituan has achieved remarkable results in the community e-commerce business sector.

At the financial report meeting in the first quarter of 2021, Meituan Wang Xing once said that community e-commerce business will bring 300-40 million new users to Meituan.

Image source: Meituan Weibo

Data shows that community e-commerce based on Meituan Selection, despite burning over 20 billion yuan within a year, has quickly attracted a group of high price sensitive users who have sunk into the market.

With the continuous expansion of community e-commerce, Meituan proposed a key issue for platform development in 2022, which is how to efficiently convert new users attracted by community e-commerce business into users in other consumption scenarios of Meituan.

In the most basic logic of Meituan, these users should have been transformed into new incremental businesses such as delivery, transportation, and store services.

In fact, Meituan still needs more time to "digest" these new users.

Image source: Meituan Weibo

Therefore,Conversion efficiency of consumption scenarios

In 2022, the catering industry was deeply trapped in a cold winter. Some businesses have started adjusting takeout prices due to the impact of rising raw material prices, and in the context of weak consumption, some consumers are also extremely sensitive to prices.

Based on the above, Meituan's digestion capacity needs to expand rapidly and increase market penetration under the support of order volume, GMV number and number of users.

There have been media reports that in order to improve the efficiency of conversion and innovation, Meituan has adopted a more "radical" marketing strategy, using a large portion of sales and marketing expenses for "user motivation".

For users, this commonly used subsidy incentive method indeed enhances the stickiness of usage within a certain period of time.

And "scraping the edge" seems to be the least expensive way to pursue coverage, but it is more likely to bring traffic and increment to a certain "hidden" path.

However,In the long run, the establishment of platform reputation and merchant trust is the "precise" entrance to obtain sustained traffic.

Therefore,

Image source: Meituan Weibo

If we say that occasionally "scraping the edge" or the platform has to do it for traffic and GMV's "last resort". So, will it evoke the association among users that other businesses such as catering and tourism are not strictly regulated?

Among internet giants, Meituan can be considered to have relatively good growth speed and user reviews, let alone allowing "edge scraping" to become a way of transformation and profitability.

The more "color", the more popular it becomes, ultimately it is just a false proposition.

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