Meituan membership for 6 months. What is the value foundation of local life?

At the recent China Open, one of the most popular tennis events, as you approach the Diamond Court, you'll notice a prominent sign reading "Meituan Premium Members' Box at the China Open".

This is the exclusive viewing area prepared by Meituan for its Black Diamond members. Many users have shared their experiences on social platforms. Some said they were "extremely surprised", others commented that "the diamond sky - box is so impressive", and some even exclaimed, "It's my first time experiencing the sky - box at the Diamond Court during the China Open. The experience is amazing!"

In addition, membership benefits such as "inviting Meituan Black Diamond members to watch movies", "free concert boxes", and "skipping the airport check - in queue" have also gained significant popularity on social platforms. These cross - border collaboration benefits are just a small reflection of Meituan's continuous upgrade of membership benefits over the past six months.

36Kr has learned that starting from September 30th, Meituan's membership benefit system has been upgraded again:

Multiple new benefits have been added in two major directions: "Priority Queuing" and "Hassle - free Services". For example, recently launched benefits like "One - on - One Express Delivery for Food Orders", "Airport Fast Track", "Priority Car Dispatch", and "Disney Premium Pass" save members a lot of queuing time. Meanwhile, benefits such as "Free Return Shipping", "On - time Delivery Insurance for Food Orders", and "Dedicated Customer Service" enhance users' detailed experience on the platform.

At the same time, the "Membership Center" section of Meituan was comprehensively redesigned and upgraded on September 28th. Besides having a clearer and more concise entrance, high - quality activities and benefits recommended for members are clearly presented. Users can quickly claim and use corresponding benefits and explore membership benefits more conveniently. Many "Exclusive Price" vouchers and packages provided by brands and merchants are directly displayed on this page, allowing users to place orders directly. Additionally, the display of the "Star - Up Rewards" has been enhanced, motivating users to grow and upgrade their membership levels more quickly.

The "Membership Center" section for Meituan Black Gold and Black Diamond members

Looking back, on March 31st this year, "Meituan Membership" was officially launched. With the God - like Coupons (formerly "God - like Members") as its core general benefit, it integrates various local - life business formats to build a membership benefit system covering all aspects of life, including dining, accommodation, transportation, travel, entertainment, shopping, and healthcare.

A report once described Meituan Membership as a "latecomer". Against the backdrop of many Internet platforms trying to attract "high - net - worth users" through membership programs and the long - standing development of offline membership - based supermarkets, its emergence was indeed not early.

However, Meituan's approach to its membership system is clear, determined, and unique. From the start, it targets all users. Instead of following the common "paid membership" model used by e - commerce platforms, it offers a free membership. Through continuously upgraded "great benefits", it makes users feel and recognize the value of the membership system. It classifies users into different levels in a transparent way, providing a "foundation" for the platform and merchants to conduct refined operations. By leveraging Meituan's large user base, high consumption frequency, and diverse business formats, it promotes cross - cooperation among different business lines and merchants in different fields.

After six months, the benefits of Meituan Membership have become much more substantial than when it was first launched. The grander "blueprint" it aims for is now gradually unfolding.

01

The More Expansive the Membership Benefits, the More Tangible the User Value

For a membership system, specific benefit items are the most direct factor in winning members' favor.

After six months of continuous upgrades, Meituan Membership's "money - saving" function remains stable, but it is no longer the only factor for users. More service - based benefits with scarce value and exclusive activities that bring a sense of "happiness" have emerged.

In the latest upgrade, the benefits in the two major categories of "Priority Queuing" and "Hassle - free Services" have significantly expanded, and users' perception of them has become more obvious.

Among them, the "Priority Queuing" benefits bring more exclusive experiences and emotional value to users.

Starting from today, Meituan Black Diamond members can enjoy "One - on - One Express Delivery for Food Orders" twice a month. In the instant delivery business, a "faster, more accurate, and more stable" fulfillment experience has always been an important way to retain high - quality users. The "One - on - One Express Delivery" service provides riders who can quickly accept orders and deliver directly, allowing users to enjoy a more efficient and reliable exclusive service.

In addition, the airport fast track and priority car dispatch also make users feel "cared for". A Black Diamond member said after experiencing the airport fast track, "Such benefits that truly enhance happiness are really rare. They relieve travel anxiety."

It is understood that Meituan Membership's "Priority Queuing" benefits will also be extended to theme parks. Starting from October 13th, Meituan Black Diamond members who purchase a one - day Disney ticket will receive two designated premium passes (the RUSH at Zootopia+140 yuan Woody's Roundup at Disney Shanghai). Starting from Shanghai Disney Resort, Meituan Membership's ticket benefits and high - quality experiences in theme parks are extending to other well - known theme parks across the country.

Such investment will inevitably incur costs in the short term. However, from a long - term perspective, users will have more favorable impressions and motivation to upgrade their membership levels or maintain their Black Diamond membership. A user exclaimed when sharing the box experience on a social platform, "Black Diamond membership is like an entry ticket to a high - quality life."

The upgrade of the "Hassle - free Services" benefits corresponds to the all - around optimization of the user experience.

For example, members at the Black Diamond, Black Gold, and Platinum levels can enjoy the "On - time Delivery Insurance for Food Orders" benefit unlimited times. They don't need to claim it, and they will receive automatic compensation if the delivery is late, with a higher compensation amount than before. Some users said, "It's like insuring my food orders." Members at the Black Diamond and Black Gold levels can enjoy the "Free Return Shipping" service for products purchased on Meituan Flash Sale. In addition, Black Diamond members also have access to dedicated customer service, provided by excellent customer service representatives selected by the platform, and they can be prioritized to connect to the hotline and online manual service.

The direction of benefit upgrades also reflects Meituan's current business logic to some extent. With the intense competition in the food delivery market and the fierce competition in the instant retail market, Meituan faces new competitive situations. However, when the "anti - involution" trend takes hold and industry subsidies return to a reasonable level, the most fundamental basic capabilities, such as supply and user experience, will still be the key to determining the long - term market structure. Behind benefits like the "On - time Delivery Insurance for Food Orders" and "Free Return Shipping", it means that Meituan is still continuously investing in the user experience, making users more worry - free in all aspects.

An overview of Meituan Membership's latest benefits

In addition to the upgrade of the two major categories of benefits, the recent redesign of Meituan's "Membership Center" section makes all membership benefits, activities, and upgrade paths more clearly visible.

In this upgrade, in addition to making the overall interface cleaner and the membership benefits and activities more distinct, Meituan Membership has presented a "Selected Zone" centered around "affordable prices and carefully selected products". In the first phase, it has jointly launched discount packages and vouchers with multiple brands, including Haidilao and Banu. Many of these packages have surprising discount rates, saving users an additional 50 - 100 yuan compared to regular discounts.

Looking beyond the vertical deepening of the membership system, from a horizontal perspective, compared with the common membership models in the Internet and offline retail industries, another characteristic of Meituan Membership is that, regardless of how the specific benefits are upgraded, its "free" nature remains unchanged.

The "paid membership" model adopted by many platforms essentially allocates resources to high - net - worth users, aiming to maintain the high consumption power of a small group. However, Meituan's internal positioning of its membership system is to serve as the "infrastructure" for the platform to conduct refined operations on all users. This means that every user is someone the platform wants to retain. Therefore, Meituan's membership model is more like a "cultivation - style" path where users accumulate growth points. Each user has a corresponding membership level, and different levels come with corresponding coupon packages and various benefits.

Based on a clear underlying concept, as the membership benefits continue to expand and the membership system gradually improves, Meituan Membership is achieving a leap in users' mindset. Users' perception of the membership system has shifted from simply focusing on the money - saving function to a closer emotional connection, such as "recognizing the membership identity" and "loving this membership system".

Similar to the "China Open box" mentioned above, starting from September 7th, Meituan Membership has partnered with "Huaxi Live·Wukesong", also in the form of a named box, to provide members with the benefit of unlimited access to concerts throughout the year. This venue hosts more than 80 shows annually, including performances by many popular artists.

Take the "100 Series" activities as an example. From July to August this year, Meituan Black Diamond members could receive 100 ice - creams and 100 cakes for free. Many members gave these to friends, colleagues, and companions. Some members even curiously asked on social platforms, "What will the Black Diamond membership give next?" These "benefits" without any restrictions and with a strong social exchange nature not only enhance the sense of identity of high - value members in a relaxed way but also directly activate their potential for social fission.

After six months of continuous upgrades, the data shows more intuitively the increasing recognition and dependence of members on this system. In the second quarter of 2025, over 10 million users upgraded their membership levels, and the number of visits to the membership page increased by more than 300% compared to the beginning of the year.

This also verifies a logic: As the traffic dividend fades, platforms enter the "battle for users' time", and the importance of increasing the consumption frequency of existing customers becomes more prominent, shaping users' trust and enhancing their stickiness by covering every aspect of their lives is the fundamental value of Meituan Membership.

02

How Can Meituan's 770 Million Transparent Members Help Merchants Break Free from the Vicious Competition?

Beyond attracting users, another profound question is what Meituan Membership means for merchants and the local - life ecosystem.

An important background is that the local - life industry, and the entire Internet platform business in general, is now in a stage of transitioning from "acquiring traffic" to "retaining users" and from "seeking growth in quantity" to "focusing on quality". In the past decade, the focus of most platforms has been on "acquiring new customers". During this process, low prices, discounts, and subsidies were indeed effective.

However, today, as the traffic dividend reaches its peak, low - price competition has become a "forced involution". Finding new customers and increasing the stickiness of existing customers have become problems that almost every merchant and platform has to face.

Take the food delivery industry as an example. In 2013, the number of online food delivery users just exceeded 100 million. In 2016, it grew to 256 million, and in 2018, it reached 358 million. Now, food delivery services cover more than 2,000 counties across the country. In 2024, the number of food delivery users in China reached 592 million, accounting for more than half of the total number of Internet users.

In the past year, Meituan served a total of 770 million users. In terms of quantity, it is a number that is unlikely to see a "steep increase" - the total number of Internet users in China in 2024 was less than 1.1 billion. However, from another perspective, it also presents a different kind of potential: With such a large user base, how much value can merchants extract from it? How can the platform help merchants solve this problem while also increasing its own user stickiness and transaction volume? These have become new questions that need to be answered.

Meituan Membership provides a solution. By classifying users into different levels based on their past consumption data, it makes users' consumption willingness and preferences more visible. It's like a new "transparent box", serving as the "infrastructure" for the platform and merchants to conduct refined user operations.

In the past, most merchants faced similar problems in user operations. On the one hand, they had to invest energy in operating their own store members and brand members, but this group was limited to a relatively closed circle, and it was difficult to find new growth. On the other hand, when trying to attract new customers from the public domain, it was difficult to accurately target the "black - box" group of users. The subsidies and discounts offered often ended up being taken by "deal - hunters" with no loyalty, resulting in high investment and low returns.

Take the service - retail sector, where the per - customer value is generally high, as an example. A gym operator said, "I'm willing to spend hundreds of yuan to acquire a new customer, but I still can't find an efficient way to do it." The "2024 China Fitness Industry Operation White Paper" by iResearch also mentioned that local - life service platforms are the main source of customers for fitness studios. However, in recent years, the cost of acquiring customers online has been rising, and offline marketing has faced problems such as low efficiency and high labor costs. Difficulty and high cost in acquiring customers are the key challenges for merchants.

To some extent, Meituan Membership's transparent classification can help merchants "redistribute" their marketing resources. For example, merchants can allocate their marketing resources, which were previously used without clear targets, to different levels of users, such as Gold, Black Gold, and Black Diamond members. By investing limited resources in more targeted groups, they can reduce meaningless low - price competition and achieve more certain results.

The "transparent" membership system also makes it easier for users at all levels to be "recognized", "seen", and "cared for".

Take the highest - level "Black Diamond members" as an example. They are a group of people with high consumption power and strong consumption willingness. Their cross - category transaction frequency is three times that of ordinary users. During this year's 618 promotion, Meituan members showed strong purchasing power, especially in high - value categories. The average consumption of Black Diamond members was three times that of ordinary members.

36Kr has learned that more and more high - level members are now placing orders for travel products on the Meituan platform or trying out more product categories. During this year's May Day holiday, the proportion of high - level Meituan members who purchased travel and accommodation products increased significantly.

In addition, young users who represent a trendy lifestyle are also highly active on Meituan. Take travel as an example. Many young people today no longer want to just visit tourist spots in a hurry. Instead, they hope to experience the local culture and the services provided by hotels more deeply, using travel to relieve stress and heal themselves.

Sharing high - value users and young users is a key need for many high - star hotels. For these hotels, members have always been considered core assets. According to "Hotel Review", although the number of members of hotel groups has been increasing, their activity levels are generally low. In some hotel groups, the proportion of active members is even less than 10%.

On May 28th, Meituan and Marriott International announced a strategic cooperation to achieve "membership integration". On the first day of their cooperation, the number of bookings for Marriott hotels on Meituan Travel increased by nearly 88% year - on - year, with the number of orders from users born after 1995 increasing by more than 148%. In addition, leading hotel groups such as InterContinental, Hyatt, and Shangri - La have also increased their cooperation with Meituan.

Meituan's business is closely related to all aspects of "life". For merchants, integrating into this membership system means breaking away from the state of operating alone