In the basement of Pacific Century Place – a complex of two 24-story office towers in the heart of Beijing – "Food Street" has seen better days. Over the past 12 months, two of its 18 restaurants have changed names and eight have closed down. "The rent is too high, profits are too low and workers prefer to have food delivered upstairs – it's cheaper," summed up one of the last remaining restaurant owners, who specializes in spicy minced pork noodles.

Since JD.com's dramatic entry into the meal delivery sector in February 2025, the e-commerce giant has waged an all-out war with competitors Taobao Shangou and Meituan, aggressively slashing menu prices for the eight million restaurants on their platforms. The goal: to seize or defend the number one spot in this booming market.

Between the second quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026, the three platforms spent the equivalent of €28 billion in meal delivery subsidies. Meituan, the market leader, recorded a loss of €620 million in the first half of the year. Unsurprisingly, this huge injection of funds artificially drove up the volume of daily orders, which leapt from 85 million to 160 million per day, according to estimates published by Goldman Sachs in August. This new reality has upended China's restaurant industry. Businesses are overwhelmed with orders but operate on razor-thin margins, while their dine-in customer base has dwindled.