Meituan, Hello Inc. Among Tech Firms Promoting Shanghai’s Revitalization

Following weeks of stringent lockdowns intended to control a local outbreak of COVID-19, the Shanghai government has recently issued a series of policies aimed at revitalizing the city’s economy. Major digital platforms offering daily services to Shanghai residents have also adopted measures to support the efforts, including Meituan Waimai, DiDi Global Inc., Saicmobility, T3 Travel, Hellobike, and others.

According to data from Meituan Waimai, over 30% of catering merchants in Shanghai have resumed online food delivery. In order to further help the merchants resume production and overcome difficulties, Meituan Waimai announced on May 31 that it would invest 40 million yuan ($5.976 million) in setting up a team of “food delivery resumption partners” to provide “Food Delivery Butler Services” for more than 10,000 high-quality Shanghai merchants. In addition, the platform will invest more than 600 million yuan ($89.64 million) in subsidies, aimed at solving the distribution problem of merchants and stimulating online consumption.

In order to better meet the needs of Shanghai residents, Meituan Maicai said that it will increase recruitment and put in more effort to promote the resumption of work and production. In addition, there are thousands of categories of goods sold by the platform, with more than 10% of new varieties launched in May. Apart from new seasonal products, the fresh aquatic products are gradually going on sale.

SEE ALSO: Shanghai Government Announces Action Plan for Economic Recovery

Regarding travel platforms, DiDi Global Inc. has prepared a “place code” for the driver. The driver needs to post the place code inside the car and upload the “antigen & nucleic acid” certificate before starting driving. Only when there is no abnormality can he or she drive the car. In addition, the company has set up five disinfection points to provide drivers with pandemic prevention materials and disinfection services for free.

Previously, Didi set up anti-pandemic support fleets in Shanghai’s Xuhui, Jing’an, Yangpu, Minhang districts, transporting nearly 4,500 patients and pandemic prevention materials once, along with more than 130,000 units of medical supplies, with a total mileage exceeding 400,000 kilometers.

T3 Travel announced that the platform will resume operation normally in Shanghai on June 1. The company has set up several disinfection points in Shanghai, distributing disinfectant and other pandemic prevention materials to drivers free of charge, and providing free vehicle disinfection services.

Saicmobility said that its operation of online ride-hailing and other businesses in Shanghai (except medium and high-risk areas) will be resumed normally in a comprehensive and orderly manner from 00:00 on June 1. From that day, Shanghai residents can book rides through the company’s app.

As of May 31, nearly 60% of Hellobike Shanghai Business Team’s front-line operation and maintenance personnel have resumed work. It is estimated that more than 70% of the business personnel will return to front-line operations and the maintenance team on June 1, responsible for the bicycle dispatching and disinfection in Shanghai. The platform will conduct bicycle disinfection tasks in grid management, ensuring that no less than 3,000 bicycles are disinfected every day in each area. Users whose rights and interests are influenced during the pandemic will also be compensated accordingly.

Since the current round of pandemic prevention and control, an anti-pandemic support fleet team has been set up by Saicmobility to meet the demand for vehicles by the CDC, and the transfer of nucleic acid samples. As of May 27, the team has completed more than 5,000 tasks with their total anti-pandemic working hours exceeding 20,000 hours.