10. Meituan, the Super App that Won Against a Thousand Clones
This week on TechBuzz China by Pandaily, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma tell you how Wang Xing, the legendary Chinese serial entrepreneur who started out with “copy to China,” is now standing behind one of the largest unicorns in the world, Meituan-Dianping.TechBuzz China by Pandaily is a weekly technology podcast focused on giving you a peek into what’s buzzing within the tech community in China. It is co-hosted by Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma, who are both seasoned China watchers with years of experience working in the technology space in China. They uncover and contextualize unique insights, perspectives, and takeaways on headline tech news that don’t always make it into English language coverage.Meituan-Dianping has dipped its toes in almost EVERY aspect of any Chinese’s life-- including food delivery, payments, ride-hailing, movie tickets sales, and travel booking. The fifth-largest unicorn is the result of a $15 billion merger between the Groupon-clone Meituan and the Yelp-predecessor Dianping, and was last valued at $30 billion, possibly soon to double in valuation if the rumored upcoming IPO holds true.How did Wang Xing create one great venture after another, from the Facebook copycat Xiaonei (now RenRen) to the Twitter clone Fanfo, yet Meituan being his only real success?Why did the the review app Dianping, created a whole year before Yelp, merge with Meituan? And why is Wang Xing now leading Meituan to compete in all these industries? Listen to this week's episode to find out!As always, you can find these stories and more at pandaily.com. Let us know what you think of the show, and don't forget to follow us on Twitter at @techbuzzchina and to like our Facebook page!