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Latest news and trends about tech in China
Every Wednesday and Friday, TechNode’s Briefing newsletter delivers a roundup of the most important news in China tech, straight to your inbox.
Meituan delivery workers in Shanwei, a city in southern China’s Guangdong province, have entered a sixth day of strikes in protest at Meituan’s diminishing benefits and rewards, according to various Chinese media reports and Shanwei delivery workers’ posts on Chinese social media.
To ensure regular services, Meituan has brought in workers from neighboring cities to Shanwei. The transferred drivers were offered a reward of RMB 10 ($1.45) per order with RMB 200 per day guaranteed, which is more than two times the pay of local drivers, according to screenshots shared on short video platform Douyin.
A Douyin user called Tukushuhai commented in a video post on Tuesday that some riders from outside the city were unfamiliar with Shanwei’s road conditions, which resulted in delivery time overruns and user complaints.
Why it matters: Meituan’s problems with its workers comes at a time when other Chinese tech majors such as ByteDance and Alibaba are accelerating their moves into the life services sector. ByteDance began testing delivery services via TikTok sibling app Douyin in selected cities in the first quarter of this year.
Details: A Meituan delivery worker in Shanwei who participated in the strike and preferred to remain anonymous told TechNode that the company had deleted “hundreds” of strikers’ work accounts, preventing them from logging into Meituan’s worker-specific app and therefore cutting off their income during the strike.
Context: According to Meituan’s earnings report, the company’s core local commerce unit (which includes food delivery, hotel and travel bookings, and in-store purchases) generated RMB 70.6 billion in delivery service income in 2022, while delivery-related costs reached RMB 80.19 billion, suggesting that the revenue generated from the delivery service was insufficient to cover delivery workers’ costs.
With a small team, TechNode provides timely news and thoughtfully researched articles for worldwide readers interested in learning more about the Chinese tech industry.
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Cheyenne Dong is a tech reporter now based in Shanghai. She covers e-commerce and retail, blockchain, and Web3. Connect with her via e-mail: cheyenne.dong[a]technode.com. More by Cheyenne Dong
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