Meituan’s “Niche Dianping” Bans Ads, Cuts Monetization

Is Meituan cannibalizing its own market share? The food delivery giant recently launched a new app called “Ya Mi,” raising eyebrows across the industry.

Forget fowl play jokes – this app is all about culinary discovery. In essence, Ya Mi is a niche review platform, a “boutique Dianping,” seemingly set to compete with Meituan’s own established review behemoth, Dazhong Dianping.

What’s intriguing is the operational head’s bold claim: a focus solely on reputation, with no immediate plans for monetization. While this might sound utopian coming from a tech titan, a closer look unveils the strategy.

Full disclosure: this isn’t a sponsored piece, and frankly, Ya Mi’s future remains uncertain. Currently in its nascent stages, it’s an internal Meituan startup only available on iOS and limited to Beijing. This reporter’s hopes of discovering a hidden gem in Hangzhou, a city sometimes unfairly dubbed a culinary desert, were dashed.

With a quick IP switch, the app’s stark simplicity is immediately apparent. Forget the endless lists and rankings of Dazhong Dianping – Ya Mi boasts a minimalist design.

The navigation bar offers four options: “Home,” “Recommendation Officers,” “Moments,” and “My Profile.” “Home” features curated collections and restaurant rankings. The information feed is a straightforward single column. See the differences? (Left: Ya Mi, Right: Dazhong Dianping)

While some fundamental features overlap with Dazhong Dianping, Ya Mi introduces intriguing variations.

The “Home” page showcases curated restaurant collections, akin to playlists on music streaming services. Examples include selections from the culinary TV show “A Meal to Remember” and recommendations from a Beijing douzhi (fermented mung bean milk) shop owner. However, given the recent launch, these collections are currently limited.

The “Moments” feature acts as a hyperlocal culinary social network, displaying food-related posts from nearby users.

Users can follow others with similar tastes, creating a curated feed of recommendations. This offers a potential solution to information overload, with relevant recommendations making a big difference.

However, Ya Mi’s distinguishing feature lies in its restaurant ranking system. Each listing displays a number of spoons and a featured comment—the heart of Ya Mi’s functionality.

The rating system, “Golden Spoon Restaurants,” uses a simple three-spoon scale to denote the dining experience: “Worth the Trip,” “Worth a Detour,” and “Worth a Stop If You’re Nearby.”

More spoons equal a higher rating.

This evokes comparisons to the Michelin Guide, but the focus differs significantly. The four top-rated restaurants boasting three spoons are indeed renowned establishments known for their refined cuisine and ambiance. One Beijing local confirmed the high praise.

However, the two-spoon restaurants lean towards more casual, accessible options.

Unlike Michelin’s emphasis on ambiance, Ya Mi prioritizes taste and quality. A stir-fried liver shop with a per-person cost of just 17 yuan even made the list.

Beyond the spoon rating, restaurant reviews play a crucial role. While Dazhong Dianping allows anyone to score and review restaurants, creating opportunities for manipulation, Ya Mi employs “Recommendation Officers” to maintain authenticity. These tasters, culinary experts, or well-known chefs are hand-picked by the platform.

While standard users can still comment, the opinions of Recommendation Officers are prioritized, mitigating the impact of fake reviews.

Crucially, the operational lead has stated that Recommendation Officers found to be engaging in paid endorsements will be removed.

If Ya Mi can uphold these standards, it stands to be a very interesting app. It has a simple interface and clean design. Small touches also enhance the experience.

Recommendation Officer profiles provide options to sort restaurants by proximity, acknowledging the important factor that traveling to a restaurant is also a cost.

In general, it’s a solid concept.

In a market saturated with inauthentic food reviews and paid endorsements, Ya Mi offers an alternative. Finding genuine restaurant recommendations online has become increasingly difficult.

Yet, a good idea doesn’t guarantee success. Questions linger about the app’s long-term viability. Tech giants have a history of launching “youth-oriented” apps, only to see them fade away. Examples include Alibaba’s Taibang and Tencent’s Yintu. These apps were intended to be community-focused and ad-free.

But these endeavors resemble pebbles tossed into a pond. If things are shallow, they might make a splash on the shore. But in deeper waters, there’s no way to get them back

The core issue is that the idea is innately at odds with big tech business models. Simplicity hinders monetization and KPI achievement. To ensure revenue, features will inevitably be added, diluting the original concept. A once simplistic experience will become overburdened.

Monetization can ultimately ruin the community. After all, Dazhong Dianping started out as a niche review platform. The core dilemma lies in the tradeoff between profitable monetization and a desirable user experience. It’s difficult to generate a lot of money while maintaining quality content.

Curiosity led to contacting the developers. The “no monetization” claim seems genuine. The priority now is simply survival. Also, Meituan has not set revenue goals for Ya Mi. It’s primarily a test project. The in-house goals are to avoid monetization for at least two years. But it’s a tough sell to get people to post to the app when they aren’t getting paid.

While the platform provides Meituan credits as incentives, they don’t compare to what established bloggers and influencers are paid. Instead of those who profit in this industry, Ya Mi has selected a certain group of experts to be Recommendation Officers. The platform will prioritize their content.

Because of this, people seem eager to try out the app, even if they don’t get paid.

The core questions are scale and moderation. How will Meituan manage this as it grows? According to the developers, Ya Mi plans to expand to 10 cities, enlisting 100 Recommendation Officers in each. With each officer posting around 10 reviews a month, the platform will need to review over 10,000 posts per month

The current level of performance that food bloggers display is on par with well-known actors. It would be quite the task to filter through all that.

But these questions come down to funding. If Meituan is willing to keep investing, Ya Mi has potential. This is an opportunity for Meituan to repair its image.

In an era defined by marketing and overblown ads, the emergence of a “rebellious” app like Ya Mi could be a boon for diners. The question is, how long can it maintain its authenticity?