Meituan’s Losses Narrow After Chinese Food Fight Cools (1)

Meituan’s quarterly losses shrank after repeated warnings from Beijing helped cool the red-hot competition that hammered margins in China’s online commerce arena.

The company reported an operating loss of 6.5 billion yuan ($961 million) for the three months ended March, better than the average analyst projection for about 9 billion yuan. Revenue grew 5.6% to 91 billion yuan, about in line with projections.

A delivery worker for Meituan in Shanghai.

Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg

While the results were better than feared, Meituan remains locked in a costly battle with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and JD.com Inc. to defend its market share in food delivery. The trio have spent billions ...