NetEase’s market value reached HK$53 billion (48 billion yuan, US$7 billion) on Thursday, surpassing Meituan’s HK$52 billion and making it the fourth-largest internet company in China by market cap behind Tencent, Pinduoduo and Alibaba. The Q3 report shows net income of 27.3 billion yuan, up 11.6 percent year-on-year.
In February 2021, during a general upswing in Chinese concept stocks, Meituan’s market value was about four times that of NetEase. Two years later, and NetEase trumps Meituan.
But Meituan’s future, according to CEO WANG Xing at least, is assured with long-term growth potential, and a stock price that only represents the food delivery business, not the “intrinsic value” of the (food-delivery) company. Wang also has a well-publicized US$1-billion share repurchase plan up his sleeve for when the time is right.
