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On August 16th, Meituan's drones launched Beijing's first drone delivery route at the Badaling Great Wall, a national AAAAA-level scenic spot. Since then, Meituan's drone "airdrop" service has covered the four first-tier cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, marking the first time that a regular drone delivery service has been initiated within the city of Beijing.

According to the introduction, the landing point for Beijing's first drone delivery route is located at the South Ninth City Tower, an extension of the southern part of the Badaling Great Wall, which was opened to the public at the end of 2023. Unlike the previously opened sections of the Great Wall with complete architectural forms, this section has retained its damaged state after eliminating dangers and diseases. It operates on a limited, small-scale, reservation-based, and collectively organized basis, mainly for outdoor hiking, adventure crossing, Great Wall research, and travel photography activities. To preserve the original appearance of the area as much as possible, no commercial facilities are established, which means that visitors to this site need to walk for at least half an hour to replenish supplies such as drinking water.

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Meituan's drone "airdrop assistance" service can provide delivery services for visitors near the landing point, including heatstroke prevention, emergency rescue, and goods such as sour plum soup and ice cream. During the May Day holiday this year, the fastest delivery in Meituan's park scenic route took only 7 to 8 minutes.

Mao Yini, Meituan's Vice President and head of the drone business, introduced that so far, Meituan's drones have opened more than 30 routes in cities such as Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, completing over 300,000 orders. The service covers various scenarios including offices, communities, scenic spots, municipal parks, emergency medical care, campuses, and libraries, providing users with more than 90,000 types of product choices.

With more than 30 routes opened, the value of low-altitude economy has always been highly regarded. The 2023 Central Economic Work Conference listed the low-altitude economy as one of the strategic industries. At the beginning of 2024, the drone airspace standards and drone product safety management regulations officially took effect, and "low-altitude economy" was written into the government work report for the first time.

According to data released by the Civil Aviation Administration of China, by 2025, the low-altitude economy market size will reach 1.5 trillion yuan, and is expected to reach 3.5 trillion yuan by 2035.

Driven by a promising market outlook, in October 2020, Yanqing District was approved by the Civil Aviation Administration of China as the first batch and the only "civil unmanned aerial vehicle test area" in Beijing, with a 374 square kilometer airspace and a true altitude of 1098 meters. According to the person in charge of Yanqing District in Beijing, drones have been made one of the four key industries in the region, and the first Zhongguancun Low-Altitude Economy Industrial Park in Beijing has recently been established in Yanqing.

This has also become the foundation for the formation of the Badaling Great Wall drone delivery route. It is reported that since Beijing is one of the most strictly controlled areas in the air, the project has gone through more than a year of communication. In addition to the Beijing route, Meituan's drone delivery has been operating in densely populated areas of Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Shanghai for three years.

Public information shows that Meituan's drone delivery project started in 2017. In early 2021, Meituan's drone completed its first order delivery task for real users in Shenzhen. In November of the same year, Meituan cooperated with Shanghai to officially launch the first urban low-altitude logistics operation demonstration center in the country, and opened a regular route in Jinshan District, Shanghai, in December 2022.Currently, Meituan has preliminarily completed the research and development of autonomous flying drones, intelligent dispatching systems, and efficient operation systems, thereby creating a city low-altitude logistics solution serving multiple scenarios and weather conditions. This solution passed the approval of the Civil Aviation Administration of China at the beginning of 2023 and obtained the "Civil Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Operation Certificate" issued by the authority.

The acquisition of this certificate means that Meituan has the qualification to start commercial operations.

As of the end of June 2024, Meituan drones have opened 31 routes in cities such as Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, and have completed more than 300,000 orders in total. The instant retail distribution service covers various scenarios including offices, communities, scenic areas, municipal parks, campuses, and libraries, and can deliver 92,000 types of products to users. In the medical scenario, Meituan drones can build an end-to-end all-weather urgent delivery network around the delivery needs of medical materials such as medical blood, test samples, pre-hospital emergency supplies, and special drugs.

At present, the record for single-line delivery of Meituan drones has reached 307 orders per day.

Challenges and Opportunities

It is reported that since 2020, the cost of Meituan's drone project has shown a very significant downward trend every year.

On the one hand, more than 90% of the components required for the urban low-altitude intelligent distribution network, such as aircraft, automated airports, and intelligent dispatching systems, are all self-developed, and the core technology has been localized. Moreover, Meituan also has its own drone production factory.

As of June 2024, Meituan drones have more than 400 patents, covering core capabilities such as high-performance flight control systems and power systems.

On the other hand, the continuous improvement in human efficiency, from one person managing one aircraft to one person managing 20 to 30 aircraft, also keeps the comprehensive cost of Meituan's drone delivery project at a considerable annual reduction.

Against the backdrop of increasingly mature technology, safety has been significantly enhanced.According to Mao Yini's introduction, since the operation of the drone project to date, no safety incidents have occurred. To ensure the safety of drone delivery, Meituan has made a significant technological investment.

The main challenge in drone logistics delivery lies in the stability of the aircraft. Currently, the Great Wall project operates the third-generation model, which can operate normally in winds up to level 5 and light to moderate rain. In July 2023, Meituan launched its self-developed fourth-generation drone in Shanghai, which can fly stably in environments such as "minus 20 degrees to 60 degrees," moderate rain, moderate snow, level 6 wind, and low light, meeting the natural environment requirements of more than 97% of domestic cities.

As the project becomes increasingly popular, it also poses extremely high demands for the refinement of the airspace management system. The person in charge of Meituan's drone project stated that digital management will be an inevitable trend in the future; otherwise, it will not be able to handle such high-density flights. At the same time, it is also necessary to demonstrate safe flights in these scenarios to the regulatory authorities to gain their confidence in granting broader regulatory permissions, allowing drone delivery to reach more scenarios.

It is reported that Meituan's drone delivery project has completed its first five-year plan internally. In the second five-year plan, Mao Yini expects the market to open up further, with regulatory authorities becoming more open. Additionally, the means and tools of management will be further improved.

However, maintaining safe and efficient operation of the aircraft under high-density conditions remains a long-term challenge.

At present, the planning of Meituan's drone delivery routes mainly targets situations where traditional takeout forms find it difficult to fulfill orders.

"We believe that as long as we solve the pain points of users, both scale and profitability will be resolved in the future," Mao Yini frankly stated. In commercial scenarios, when facing real users and real scenarios, it is necessary to practice and verify the dispatch and management capabilities of the aircraft. In particular, how to balance safety and efficiency requires long-term practice.