Wang Xing Doesn't Want to Become an 'Lao Deng'

Warning from the top

Wang Xing (王兴), founder and CEO of Meituan (美团), has a blunt warning: don’t let a fast-moving company calcify into an “old guard.” It has been reported that he told staff that meetings are getting longer, young people are quieter and approvals now outlast the processes they are supposed to govern. The caution is practical, not nostalgic — Meituan recently disclosed it expects a full‑year loss of at least RMB 23 billion in 2025, after posting a RMB 35.8 billion profit in 2024 — and the company is simultaneously fighting old and new battles across the local‑services landscape.

Three simultaneous bets

It has been reported that Wang framed Meituan’s strategy as three concurrent bets: build instant retail (即时零售), push international expansion (examples include Keeta in the Middle East and an early push into Brazil), and invest in AI infrastructure such as the “Wen Xiaotuan” (问小团) search/product backed by self‑developed large models. Why three at once? Because Wang argues the next era’s core asset is not traffic but real‑world information density — knowing whether a restaurant has seats, whether a delivery has stock, where a rider actually is — data that large language models alone cannot conjure.

Organisational risk and a changing competitive map

Wang’s remarks sit against a broader industry pattern: firms that dominated one technological era often stumble when decision‑making becomes slow and conservative. It has been reported that he used stark metaphors — internet vs mobile as species of the same family; AI as a different species entirely — to argue that veteran experience can become a liability if it blinds leaders to new information needs. Competition is intensifying domestically as ByteDance’s Douyin (抖音) recombines content and commerce, and geopolitics complicates AI ambitions: chip export controls and other technology frictions make reliance on real‑world data and domestic stacks more strategically urgent.

A deliberate self‑reset

Wang’s plea — stop calling him “Xing ge,” and don’t let the company become an “Lao Deng” — is more than a personal preference. It has been reported that he wants Meituan to undertake an institutional self‑examination: shed ossified judgment frameworks, reinvent decision paths, and accept that methods that won in the past may hinder winning tomorrow. Can Meituan stay nimble while running on three difficult fronts? The answer will shape not only the company’s next chapter but also how China’s local‑services giants adapt to an AI‑shaped market.