Meituan Launches Commercial Drone Delivery Network

On May 22, a leading on-demand service platform in China announced that it has begun commercial operations of its internally developed low-altitude logistics infrastructure and is recruiting authorized service providers nationwide.

This infrastructure features the fourth-generation long-range rappelling drone, the M-Drone 4L Winch; an intelligent airport shuttle, the M-Port 3; and the cloud-based drone operation control system, M-DaaS 3, according to the company’s statement released yesterday.

Following its first real-order drone delivery in Shenzhen in early 2021, the company launched its first regular drone service route in December 2022 to test operational capabilities.

By the end of last year, the company operated around 70 drone delivery routes across cities including Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Dubai, successfully completing over 780,000 deliveries.

The volume of drone delivery orders has steadily increased over the past five years, especially after the company expanded services to include nighttime and rainy weather deliveries, stated Mao Yinian, vice president of the firm and head of its drone division. The number of orders from a single location has surged from approximately 10 per day to as many as 400.

With growing order counts and more efficient flight operations, costs related to equipment, batteries, energy, and venue rentals have decreased, resulting in an annual reduction of operation costs per order by 40 to 50 percent, Mao added.

The company’s low-altitude delivery services mainly aim to address challenging land transport scenarios, such as the delivery of medical samples. It has established drone delivery routes in Shanghai and Sichuan Province for urgent medical material shipments to patients.

The firm is licensing its low-altitude logistics solutions to authorized partners to expand the application scope using its system. So far, agreements have been signed with ten service providers.

Experts forecast that regions like the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle are poised to become China’s top areas for commercial low-altitude logistics, with explosive growth expected this year or next. This projection is supported by local government backing and significant investments from major corporations, according to Zhao Xiaomin, a logistics and delivery specialist.

He emphasized that, besides favorable policies and technological advancements, the expansion of low-altitude logistics also depends heavily on creating a variety of application scenarios. Operators should tailor their service offerings to specific demands in diverse and specialized environments.

However, challenges remain for low-altitude delivery, noted Zhang Yi, CEO of iiMedia Research. Key issues include obtaining flight approvals in urban airspace, ensuring security, minimizing noise pollution, and managing risks such as falling objects and drone malfunctions, all of which require clearer and more targeted regulations.