The $30 Billion Mistake: Why Alibaba Couldn’t Buy a Penny of Profit in Food Delivery
Alibaba spent nearly $30 billion in a year to reach three-quarters of Meituan’s food delivery volume – but still loses $1.80 per order while Meituan earns a thin $0.10. The brutal truth: you can buy market share, but you cannot buy a profitable unit economics model. Capital can’t break the physics of operational density.