BEIJING (Reuters) -Chinese food delivery giant Meituan on Friday reported a better-than-expected 30.6% rise in fourth-quarter revenue, at the same time as investment in new initiatives increased losses.
Meituan, whose services also include restaurant reviews and bike-sharing, said revenue rose to 49.52 billion yuan ($7.78 billion) in the final three months of 2021.
Consensus analysts expectations were for 49.20 billion yuan, Refinitiv Eikon data showed.
Quarterly loss swelled to 5.34 billion yuan from a loss of 2.24 billion yuan a year earlier, as Meituan invested in initiatives including its community e-commerce unit Meituan Select and Kuailv Jinhuo, a B2B unit delivering fresh food to restaurants.
Revenue in the food delivery business, which accounts for over half of Meituan’s total revenue, increased 21.3% to 26.13 billion yuan over the quarter.
($1 = 6.3645 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Yingzhi Yang and Brenda Goh; editing by Jason Neely and Barbara Lewis)
