China’s escalating delivery discount battle entered a new phase, as Meituan has signed table tennis champion Sun Yingsha as its latest brand ambassador.
The retail tech giant broke the news on Weibo, calling Sun its new 'Delicious Life Ambassador.' Within an hour, the announcement shot to the top of Weibo’s trending chart, following a cryptic teaser the day prior featuring a ping pong paddle.
Sun, fresh off her standout performance at the Paris 2024 Olympics, has become one of the most coveted faces in Chinese advertising. In the weeks since the Games, she’s signed with more than ten brands, including Colgate-Palmolive, KFC, Oppo and Maison Margiela Fragrances. Her partnership with Meituan ties into a rising wave of national pride, meme-backed fandom and celebrity-backed consumer campaigns.
Online, many users have drawn connections between Meituan’s signature yellow branding colour and the iconic sportswear worn by China’s table tennis team earlier this year, adding a playful patriotism to the brand’s positioning.
But beyond the celebrity fanfare, the endorsement reflects mounting pressure in China's instant delivery wars. Since early July, players like Meituan, JD.com, Ele.me and Taobao have been slashing prices and launching flash sales to claw at market share. Meituan recently reported a record-breaking 150 million daily orders, as Campaign previously reported, nearly double Alibaba’s 80 million and six times JD.com’s 25 million.
While such tactics drive short-term volume spikes, they can also invite regulatory scrutiny. Earlier this month, China’s market watchdog summoned Meituan, JD.com and Alibaba to address the growing risks of deep discounting and its impact on the sector’s sustainability.
Jacob Cooke, co-founder and CEO of WPIC Marketing + Technologies, has raised long-term concerns about this discount frenzy. “Celebrity endorsements can drive short-term excitement, but the more structural threat in China’s delivery wars is coming from instant retail. Taobao’s new offering in this space is particularly strong because it brings traditional e-commerce categories, like beauty, electronics, and home goods, into the same on-demand ecosystem as food and grocery delivery. That’s a much broader value proposition to consumers than price alone. ”
Cooke added further, “We expect this more expansive and integrated model to shape the next phase of competition, especially as platforms chase higher-margin transactions and longer-term customer loyalty.”
