Meituan-Dianping Bridges the Gap between Digital Advertising and Offline Experience with the First Fully-Integrated Online and Offline Programmatic Marketing Platform

BEIJING, Aug. 28, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Meituan-Dianping, China's largest service-focused e-commerce platform, announced the launch of its "Co-Line Marketing", an integrated online and offline marketing platform. This game-changing marketing technology provides merchants and brands with unprecedented value propositions that enable them to access a tailored consumer base. Co-Line Marketing will help drive the most diversified merchant ecosystem in China.

Through programmatic advertising and location-based service (LBS) technologies, the Co-Line Marketing platform automatically establishes one-of-a-kind geo-localized consumer profiles to help merchants precisely reach their target customers across Meituan-Dianping's 260 million annual active buying customers.

In contrast to other e-commerce platforms, Co-Line Marketing enables merchants to look beyond people's online habits and understand their offline behavior as well, painting an accurate and complete portrait of user behavior around the clock. The platform enables merchants and brands to go past the online marketing loop (online advertising enabling online purchases) and demonstrates how online advertising can lead to offline experiences. For the first time, merchants and brands are provided with a truly integrated online and offline marketing offering that can significantly drive return on investment. Consumers will also benefit from an enhanced user experience through programmatic recommendations and an easy one-click application to seamlessly switch between verticals.

The marketing tool is easily accessible to merchants and brands through a simple and user-friendly interface. The platform helps them accurately pinpoint local nearby customers, with access to big data gathered from all of Meituan-Dianping's verticals, based on people's local lifestyles and geo-location.

"We help businesses effectively implement an integrated marketing strategy leveraging our resources to target the right consumers and convert advertising to local experiences to purchases," said Mr. Chuan Zhang, Senior Vice President of Meituan-Dianping and President of its Lifestyle & Entertainment (previously "In-Store Others") Business Group. "This is the most efficient marketing technology that finally allows merchants and brands to benefit from the digital revolution. With both our dining service matrix and lifestyle & entertainment services matrix, we are delivering more diverse value propositions for the services industry and facilitating the transformation of businesses into a seamlessly unified online and offline model."

As one example, HQ Education, an accounting education company based in Shanghai, started utilizing Meituan-Dianping's platform in 2017 and its customer conversion rate reached 39%, considerably higher than any other platforms. For brands, it helps direct users toward various offline purchases in different real-life scenarios. Harbin Beer, for example, is able to locate beer lovers and engage with them directly with promotions tailored to their lifestyles and preferences, capturing activities under numerous situations, such as recommending nearby "Harbin Beer restaurants" with bonuses such as first beer free or a buy three get one free package when ordering food or placing delivery orders, presenting drinks packages when booking karaoke (KTV) rooms, etc. In addition, brands can accurately reach out to their target customers at reduced cost. belVita Breakfast Biscuit, for instance, utilized Meituan-Dianping's platform to launch a sampling campaign in Beijing and Shanghai, leveraging its extensive restaurant database to identify 200 coffee shops and stores that are popular among the desired breakfast crowd. To receive free belVita samples, customers were invited to scan a special QR code and complete a survey. Data analysis would be used for future planning and marketing. By partnering with Meituan-Dianping, the cost of belVita's sampling event was reduced by 75%. 

The new offering provides brands and merchants - from spas to wedding planners, KTV, education centers, in addition to restaurants - a unique platform leveraging cross-vertical integration and further consolidates Meituan-Dianping's Lifestyle & Entertainment Business Group by creating a powerful ecosystem mutually beneficial to consumers and merchants. More than a marketing tool, Co-Line Marketing is expected to be a key driver of the Company's next development phase. Covering 33 million POI today, Meituan-Dianping expects to significantly increase its outreach in the next couple of years.

Meituan-Dianping's Lifestyle & Entertainment Business Group is one of the Company's four pillars along with On-demand Delivery, In-Store Dining, and Travel & Leisure. Lifestyle & Entertainment gathers services across six business lines: Leisure & Entertainment, Beauty, Family, Wedding Services, Home Decoration, and Education & Training. Meituan-Dianping is the only platform that offers one-stop daily life services for individuals and families covering their entire lifestyle needs, while helping local businesses thrive through online and offline integration. Consumers are able to place orders and reserve services according to individuals' preferences. The Company is an undisputed market leader in all its verticals, e.g. 90% of online KTV reservations are made through Meituan-Dianping's platform. 

About Meituan-Dianping

Meituan-Dianping is China's largest service-focused e-commerce platform, connecting more than 260 million young annual active buying consumers with more than three million annual active local merchants across the whole China, from tier one cities to minority counties, processing 20 million orders on a single day.

Under its "Eat Better, Live Better" mission, the Company offers a one-stop daily life services platform aiming to improve overall way of life for consumers through its dominant leadership in more than 200 service and product categories. Meituan-Dianping leverages its platform strategy to drive constant product upgrades through technology innovation and empowering local businesses by boosting industry efficiency through digital, internet and mobile solutions.

Meituan-Dianping is the industry leader across its four major business groups: In-Store Dining, the largest and most comprehensive online dining platform in China; Lifestyle & Entertainment (previously "In-Store Others"), the online market leader across multiple verticals, including weddings, beauty, mom & kids, KTV, renovation, and other leisure and entertainment services; On-Demand Delivery, the world's largest and most efficient delivery platform; and Travel & Leisure, with offerings covering accommodation, domestic travel, outbound travel, and transportation.

For enquiries, please contact:

Meituan-Dianping
Jane Zuo 
Investor Relations
Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Meituan-Dianping