CITIC Securities: It is expected that the competition in the takeaway industry will tend to stabilize, the market ecology will develop in a benign way, and the value of platforms is expected to be released in the long term.

The research report from CITIC Securities indicates that the recent impressive growth in order volume by JD.com's food delivery service has sparked discussions. For the food delivery industry, competition is expected to stimulate market activity, drive major players to strengthen their ecosystem construction, and have positive value for industry development. Looking at the trend of competition, as order volume expands, competition will present a comprehensive and multifaceted situation. Reviewing previous positive collisions in the food delivery market, subsidies have had a noticeable short-term effect on boosting order growth, but they are not the determining factor for the direction of competition, with multidimensional systematic variables such as delivery efficiency, merchant supply, user retention, and frequency being more core. Under intensifying competition, various parties may face unavoidable capital consumption, causing short-term disruptions to market sentiment. However, in a relatively long-term perspective, we anticipate that the industry competition pattern will stabilize, market ecology will develop positively, and platform value will be released in the long run.