Meituan-Dianping’s CEO Wang Xing responded to negative comments on the recent controversy about food delivery app Meituan Waimai (美团外卖, Meituan Takeaway) using separate boxes for halal food, our sister site TechNode Chinese is reporting.
This week, a picture of Meituan Waimai using a separate food box for halal food was widely circulated on the Chinese internet, stirring up controversy with many netizens claiming discrimination against non-Muslims. The Meituan Waimai app was flooded with one-star comments of angry Chinese netizens claiming that Meituan users should delete the app. Initially, Meituan did not respond to this. And then one user called “Meituan city manager Zhang Wei,” published the user’s comment on knowledge sharing platform Zhihu, which once again led to strong condemnation from the public.
After a long silence, Meituan responded to the issue on its official Weibo account on the evening of July 19th:
After our investigation and verification, we found that Meituan Takeaway agents in Gansu Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture area privately produced unofficial distribution boxes and fans, and currently it can be found in only in a small place in the Gansu Linxia area. We will strengthen the supervision of agents and food materials, and keep strict requirements of agents and businesses to only use official materials.
In addition, the Meituan-Dianping CEO Wang Xing said through his account on Fanfou, a 140-words micro-blogging platform, that the company did not have such a staff named “Meituan city manager Zhang Wei”, and said someone deliberately posted the comment to discredit Meituan.
Wang Xing said, “We have checked internally, and there is no such low, pig-like person on our team. Basically, it can be judged that someone deliberately posing as the Meituan staff published disgusting remarks to discredit us. This was an organized attack.”
Then, Wang Xing again said, “These days, we had the opportunity to see how the domestic business competition has no bottom line. Anything can be used to incite, provoke, and discredit.”