Delivery and lifestyle super-app Meituan (美团) is taking its business to Brazil – their first market in the Americas. The company announced it will officially kick off operations on 30th October under its international brand name, Keeta.
The move is not Meituan’s first overseas venture. As Keeta, they went into Hong Kong in May 2023 and Saudi Arabia in 2024. For the Brazil venture, they’ve pledged an investment of US$1 billion over the next five years – quite a statement of intent.
The rollout will begin in Santos and São Vicente, two coastal cities near São Paulo with relatively modest populations but strategic advantages as test markets. Both areas have high smartphone penetration and growing middle-class consumer bases, offering a manageable launchpad before a nationwide push.
The real challenge, though, may lie further down the line. Brazil’s food-delivery market is dominated by one player, iFood, which hold an estimated 86% of the market share and will not want to give it up easily.
Still, Meituan’s timing may be shrewd. The World Bank puts Brazil’s urban population at 88% of its total and growing, which makes for a sizable delivery market. Meituan also has a box of tricks that play well, namely a strategy of subsidisation that makes them highly competitive in price.
Its business services are also pretty elite. A restaurant hosted on Meituan gets far more than just a fleet of yellow-helmeted delivery drivers. They get analytics, real-time pricing and promotion options, and high-tech data analysis. It’s unclear how much of these benefits will be behind Keeta from the get-go – the availability of subsides, for example, will depend on Brazilian legislation.
This in itself raises an interesting element: Keeta’s success in Brazil may depend less on how many of Brazil’s urban consumers they can win over, but how quickly they can replicate their Chinese business model.
