Lifestyle service app report: Nearly 500 million people are using it, and Meituan accounts for nearly 3/4 of the users

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Image source: Visual China

Core Viewpoint

• The scale of the in-store catering/service industry continues to grow rapidly. Currently, the scale of industry app users is nearly 500 million, and the installation penetration rate is 45.2%;
• Meituan and Dianping are firmly in the top echelon, and their installation penetration rate, number of new users, number of active users, awareness, usage rate, top preference, overall evaluation and other indicators are better than other apps;
• Whether it is in-store dining or in-store services, 70% of users choose Meituan; in the in-store service industry, Meituan is in a leading position in various indicators in the leisure and entertainment, beauty, education and training, wedding and other sub-sectors;
• There are slightly more male users in the store, mainly aged 16-35, and a higher proportion of users in first- and second-tier cities. Among them, Meituan users are relatively young;
• The growth in the scale of catering services will drive the development of the in-store industry, and the integration of online and offline and the application of new technologies may change the service mode of the in-store industry.

1. Overview of Industry Development

The concept and scope of in-store O2O

This report focuses on the analysis of the in-store catering/service industry.

In-store catering/service industry scale and installation penetration rate

The industry continues to grow rapidly, and the future is promising. As of August 2018, the number of users of in-store catering/service apps was nearly 500 million, with an installation penetration rate of 45.2%, and a rapid increase of 100 million users in the past year.

In-store catering/service industry landscape

The industry structure is divided into three echelons, and the top echelon (Meituan, Dianping) has a solid leading position. The structure of the in-store catering/service industry is clear, with Meituan's penetration rate reaching 33.98% and Dianping's penetration rate reaching 10.87%. Meituan Dianping is in a leading position in the in-store catering/service industry;

The penetration rate of Koubei and Baidu Nuomi is less than 3%, ranking in the second tier in the in-store catering/service industry;

The penetration rate of the remaining apps is extremely low and they are in the third tier.

Business model of in-store catering/service industry

The in-store catering/service platform is a business that connects consumers and merchants, and the O2O platform model is the main business model of the in-store catering/service industry.

Taking Meituan Dianping as an example, Meituan Dianping has built a connecting platform for consumers and merchants, allowing consumers to obtain more store information and consumption discounts before consumption. At the same time, it also meets the merchants' needs for traffic and exposure, and becomes a channel for merchants to sell service products online. The main source of profit for the in-store catering/service industry is the merchant's platform commission and income from value-added services, such as advertising, precision marketing, etc.

2. Industry Competition Landscape

Awareness of major apps in the industry

Meituan has the highest awareness, with industry user awareness reaching 97.2%; Dianping’s awareness is close to 70%, ranking second in the industry; the second-tier Koubei has a similar awareness to Baidu Nuomi, at nearly 50%.

Utilization rate of major apps in the industry

The usage rate pattern of major apps in the industry is clear. Meituan's usage rate is significantly higher than other apps. 94.3% of industry users have used Meituan for consumption, and the usage rate gap between other apps is also very obvious. Dianping, which ranks second, has a usage rate of nearly 50%, while word-of-mouth and Baidu Nuomi in the second tier have a usage rate of 20 to 30 percent.

Major app MAU in the industry

Meituan had 240 million monthly active users in August, ranking first in the industry; Dianping had 60 million monthly active users in August, ranking second; Baidu Nuomi and Koubei had around 5 million monthly active users.

Exclusive user share of major apps in the industry

Meituan’s user exclusivity rate is close to 3/4, indicating that installing only the Meituan app can meet most users’ in-store needs; Dianping’s user exclusivity rate is as high as 30%, and the exclusivity rates of other apps are relatively low, ranging from 10% to 20%. The top echelon has obvious advantages.

Daily new user volume of major apps in the industry

Meituan and Dianping have daily new users reaching 10,000 or less, while other apps are in the tens of thousands or less; Koubei’s daily new users surged in late 2017 and early 2018, which was the main reason for the growth of its installation penetration rate, but then its daily new users fell back to its previous level.

Retention rate of new users of major apps in the industry

In terms of retaining new users, there is not much difference between Meituan, Dianping and Baidu Nuomi, while word of mouth is lower, with a 30-day retention rate of about 40%.

Overall evaluation of major apps in the industry

The overall evaluation reflects the user experience. Meituan is the only app with an overall evaluation average of more than 8 points, indicating that Meituan is superior to other apps in user experience; Dianping and Koubei’s user evaluations are relatively close, ranking second and third respectively.

Evaluation of the main app items in the industry

Meituan ranks among the top in all detailed dimensions, among which "app is easy to use" and "covers many/complete stores" are the most outstanding; Dianping ranks first in "recommendations/comments are helpful to me"; "app is easy to use" is the highest-rated detail for most apps, reflecting that the app design meets user needs; however, due to the overall weakening of group buying discounts in the industry, the evaluation of "group buying/discounts are great" is relatively low.

In-store dining app usage preferences

In the in-store catering industry, the proportion of users using Meituan and ***Meituan is ***, significantly higher than other apps; the usage rate reflects the actual usage of users, with Meituan's usage rate close to 90%, Dianping close to 40%, and Koubei close to 30%; the *** share reflects the user's usage preference, with Meituan *** accounting for more than 70%, while the proportions of other apps are relatively low, all in single digits except Dianping.

How to use the functions of the in-store dining app

Search, group purchase and discount payment are the main functions used by users. The usage rate of different apps is different. Meituan has the highest usage rate in search and group purchase, while Dianping has a higher usage rate in search and Koubei has a higher usage rate in discount payment.

In-store dining app loyalty

The loyalty rate of Meituan, the industry leader, is as high as 95.6%, which shows that Meituan can meet the needs of users and successfully retain users, which is higher than other apps; the loyalty rates of word-of-mouth and Dianping exceed 70%, and Baidu Nuomi exceeds 60%.

Net Promoter Score (NPS) of in-store dining apps

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is an indicator to measure user reputation and satisfaction. The larger the value, the higher the user reputation and satisfaction. Meituan's Net Promoter Score is the highest, indicating that in the in-store catering industry, users have the highest reputation and satisfaction with Meituan, which is significantly higher than other apps; the Net Promoter Score of Dianping and Koubei is close, both around 25%.

In-store service app usage preferences

The market structure of in-store services is very similar to that of in-store dining, with Meituan significantly higher than other apps, and Dianping second.

User engagement in in-store service segments

Among all the in-store service segments, user participation in leisure and entertainment stores is the highest, reaching 84.1%; while there is still a lot of room for development in beauty stores, education and training stores, and wedding stores.

The proportion of apps in the in-store service segment

Meituan has obvious advantages in various segments, among which it is strongest in leisure and entertainment stores; Dianping ranks second in all segments, among which it has a relatively high share in Beauty Stores; Koubei has a relatively high share in education and training stores, which is the only segment where it accounts for a double-digit share.

How to use the in-store service app

Users mainly use the search function, group purchase and discount payment functions. Meituan's usage rate in finding merchants and group purchase is significantly higher than other apps, and its advantage is most obvious; Dianping has a higher usage rate in finding merchants, while Koubei has a higher usage rate in discount payment & payment.

In-store service app loyalty

Similar to the situation of in-store dining, Meituan users are also the most loyal in in-store services, and the loyalty of word-of-mouth users and Dianping users exceeds 70%.

Net Promoter Score (NPS) of in-store service apps

The Net Recommendation Score of in-store services is better than that of in-store dining. Meituan still ranks first in the field of in-store services, with a Net Recommendation Score of 38.8%, which is close to the situation of in-store dining; the Net Recommendation Score of Dianping, Koubei and Baidu Nuomi in the field of in-store services has increased to varying degrees compared with in-store dining, especially Baidu Nuomi, which has increased by nearly 10 percentage points.

3. User Profile

User Gender Distribution

Overall, the proportion of male users is slightly higher. The gender ratio of Meituan users is relatively balanced, while the proportion of male users of Dianping and Koubei is slightly higher, while the proportion of female users of Baidu Nuomi is slightly higher.

User age distribution

More than 80% of users are between 16 and 35 years old; the largest age group of users of each app is 26-35 years old, accounting for more than 50%; Meituan users are relatively young, while users of other apps are relatively older.

User geographical location distribution

The proportion of users in second-tier and above cities is higher than that of Internet users nationwide. In terms of provinces, Guangdong Province has the largest proportion of users, reaching 11.0%, with Jiangsu Province and Henan Province ranking second and third respectively; in terms of cities, first-tier cities occupy the top four, with Beijing accounting for the largest proportion of users, at 3.4%, followed by Shanghai, at 3.3%.

IV. Future Development Trends

One of the future development trends

The revenue of my country's catering industry continues to grow at a high speed, always maintaining a growth rate of about 10%, which is higher than the GDP growth rate; the continued growth in scale reflects the continued growth in users' demand for catering services, which will promote users' demand for and use of in-store apps and drive the development of the in-store catering/service industry.

Future Development Trend 2

Users' consumption habits have gradually shifted from scattered consumption to centralized consumption, and one-stop shopping malls that integrate food, entertainment and shopping have become more and more a place for people's daily leisure consumption; with the development and maturity of offline one-stop consumption, in-store industry players can integrate their merchant resources, realize the connection of the entire online to offline consumption chain, and achieve online and offline integration, which will further enhance user experience and user loyalty.

Future Development Trend 3

The application of emerging technologies will bring changes to the catering and service industries, and the app functions and operational requirements for the in-store industry will also increase accordingly.

Report Description

1. Data Source

Aurora Big Data is derived from the industry data collection of Aurora Cloud Service Platform and the long-term monitoring of various mobile applications by Aurora iAPP Platform, combined with data mining and statistical analysis conducted with large sample algorithms; survey data is collected through online surveys conducted on Aurora Survey Platform, and a total of 2,001 questionnaires that meet the requirements of users in the in-store catering/service industry are collected (of which 1,960 samples meet the requirements of in-store catering, 1,414 samples meet the requirements of in-store services, and the same user can be samples of both in-store catering and in-store services), with an execution period of August 2018.

2. Data cycle

Overall report period: 2017.01-2018.08

3. Data indicator description

Please refer to the notes on each page for specific data indicators

4. Legal Notice

The data information provided by Jiguang Big Data is estimated and analyzed based on large sample data sampling, small sample surveys, data model predictions and other research methods. Due to the limitations of the methods themselves, the data information estimated and analyzed by Jiguang Big Data based on the above methods is for reference only. Jiguang Big Data does not make any guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, applicability and non-infringement of the above data information. The legal consequences of any actions taken by any organization or individual based on the above data information have nothing to do with Jiguang Big Data, and any disputes or legal liabilities arising therefrom shall be borne by the actor.

5. Other information in the report

Aurora Data Research Institute will use its big data capabilities to conduct more detailed analysis and interpretation and business insights in various fields. Please stay tuned.