Chinese authorities on Friday said the country’s online food-delivery platforms should reduce the fees they charge businesses, sending shares of industry giant Meituan plummeting to their lowest level in more than a year.
Meituan, one of China’s most valuable internet-platform companies, operates a mobile app that hundreds of millions of people use to order food. Its shares tumbled 15% in Friday afternoon trading in Hong Kong to their lowest close since July 2020. The drop shaved $26 billion off Meituan’s market capitalization, taking it to the equivalent of about $148 billion, according to FactSet.