Chinese on-demand services giant Meituan’s delivery workers earn US$11 billion in 2023: CEO

CEO Wang Xing’s internal announcement reflects Meituan’s efforts to address mainland policymakers’ concerns over the welfare of gig workers

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Despite China’s sluggish economy, Meituan has hired more than 5,000 new graduates annually over the past three years. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 6:00pm, 18 Sep 2024

Meituan, China’s largest on-demand local services provider, said its 7.45 million delivery workers drew 80 billion yuan (US$11.3 billion) in total income from the platform last year, company co-founder and chief executive Wang Xing said in an internal letter on Tuesday.

About 4.5 million of those delivery workers are also covered with insurance for occupational injury, a nationwide pilot programme that was initiated in 2022 for people in gig-economy jobs, according to the letter.

The internal announcement by Wang – with a net worth of US$10.4 billion as of September 18, according to Forbes – reflects Meituan’s efforts to address mainland policymakers’ concerns over the welfare of the country’s gig-economy workers, which include freelancers, food delivery riders, live-streaming broadcasters and ride-hailing drivers.

The number of gig-economy workers on the mainland stood at around 200 million over the past three years, representing about 23 per cent of the country’s working population, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

A food delivery courier of Meituan, right, crosses paths with an Ele.me rider in Beijing. Photo: Simon Song

Officially tagged as “flexible employment”, gig work is not bound by formal employment contracts and includes part-time and temporary jobs.

Employment as a food delivery rider is seen as a last-resort job for the mainland’s middle-aged workers amid the country’s sputtering economy.