We dive into the history behind Meituan, the juggernaut Chinese "super-app" which dominates China's services economy, offering consumers everything from food delivery, restaurant reviews, travel booking, bike-sharing, movie ticketing, and countless other entertainment and lifestyle services all at the touch of a button. Already China's 3rd largest tech company by market cap (behind just Tencent and Alibaba), Meituan did $15 billion in net revenue in FY2019 and continues to grow rapidly. What makes it so special, and how were they able to become the market leader in such a competitive space? This story is packed with lessons that apply equally beyond China tech to high-growth company building and investing everywhere. Sponsors:Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierraSentry: https://bit.ly/acquiredsentryAnthropic: https://bit.ly/acquiredclaude25Vanta: https://vanta.com/acquired More Acquired!Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodesJoin the SlackSubscribe to ACQ2Merch Store!© Copyright 2015-2025 ACQ, LLCThe Meituan Playbook is available on our website at https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/meituanLinks:Meituan's English language walkthrough video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wxgQVjDviQThe Tech Buzz China podcast: https://www.techbuzzchina.comGGV's Evolving for the Next Billion podcast: https://nextbn.ggvc.com/podcasts/Bernard Leong's Analyse Asia: https://analyse.asia Carve Outs:Extraterrestrial:  https://www.amazon.com/Extraterrestrial-First-Intelligent-Beyond-Earth-ebook/dp/B081TTY4NX/John Luttig's newsletter: https://luttig.substack.com