The bustling streets of modern China are synonymous with a unique sight: fleets of riders in distinct uniforms, swiftly navigating traffic to deliver meals. This is the legacy of two entrepreneurial legends, Meituan and Ele.me, whose rival empires rose from humble beginnings to dominate the 外卖行业 (food delivery industry).
The story of 饿了么 (Ele.me) begins in a dorm room. In 2008, Shanghai Jiaotong University student Zhang Xuhao and his classmates grew tired of the inconvenience of ordering food. They created a simple website, connecting local restaurants with students. The name, meaning "Are you hungry?", was a direct, grassroots solution to a universal student problem. This was the birth of the 创业传奇 (startup legend), fueled by campus demand and a vision to solve a real-life 痛点 (pain point). For years, Ele.me grew organically, mastering the art of local campus delivery before expanding city by city.
Meanwhile, 美团 (Meituan) had a different origin. Founded in 2010 by Wang Xing, a serial entrepreneur known as the "clone king" for adapting successful foreign internet models to China, Meituan started as a Groupon-like group-buying platform for services. This background in the hyper-competitive 千团大战 (thousand group-buying sites war) was crucial. It taught Meituan brutal efficiency in operations, ground-level sales tactics, and the importance of technological backend. When Meituan launched its food delivery service in 2013, it was not a dorm-room project but a strategic invasion by a battle-hardened team into a market Ele.me had pioneered.
What followed was an epic battle for market supremacy, famously fueled by the 补贴大战 (subsidy war). To attract users and riders, both platforms spent billions of dollars offering deep discounts, free delivery, and red envelopes. For a period, customers enjoyed incredibly cheap meals, and 骑手 (delivery riders) could earn high incomes from incentives. This fierce competition accelerated the adoption of food delivery nationwide, transforming it from a niche service into a daily necessity for millions. It was a costly but necessary phase that consolidated the market around these two giants, weeding out smaller players.
Their paths to building their 外卖帝国 (food delivery empires) diverged significantly. Ele.me, after its early grassroots innovation, integrated deeply into the Alibaba ecosystem, focusing on 新零售 (new retail) and quality service. In contrast, Meituan leveraged its strength as a 超级应用 (super-app). It bundled food delivery with other services like hotel bookings, movie tickets, and bike-sharing, creating an unparalleled 生态系统 (ecosystem) that drove user loyalty and frequent engagement.
The impact of these two empires is undeniable. They created millions of jobs for 骑手 (delivery riders), digitized hundreds of thousands of traditionally offline restaurants, and fundamentally changed urban lifestyles. The term "懒人经济 (lazy economy)" emerged, describing the new consumption habit of relying on on-demand delivery for daily needs.
From a simple dorm-room idea to a strategic pivot by a group-buying titan, the rise of Meituan and Ele.me is a quintessential modern 创业传奇 (startup legend). Their story is not just about delivering food; it is a tale of how 创业精神 (entrepreneurial spirit), technological adoption, and fierce capital competition built two empires that feed a nation and redefine the meaning of convenience.