Consumer Staples Author：EqualOcean News , Zhiqing Chen May 11, 2021 11:33 PM (GMT+8)

The dominant Chinese food delivery service company, Meituan, has experienced a sharp fall in its shares since its founder, Wang Xing, posted an ancient poem on May 9.

Wang Xing / meituan /, meituan comments / Longzhu capital

The 42-year-old Meituan founder, Wang Xing, posted an ancient poem criticizing an emperor of the Qin Dynasty who burned books; he posted the poem on Chinese social media platform Fanfou.com. This poem was written by Zhang Jie during the late Tang dynasty (618-907 AD) and expresses harsh criticism of Qin Shihuang over the emperor’s tyrannical acts of burning books in four verses.

According to Bloomberg, Meituan shares dropped by almost 10% in Hong Kong before recovering some losses for a 7.1% decline. The company lost around USD 16 billion after this incident. But so far, Meituan’s spokesman has declined to comment or deliver further information.

As a Chinese food delivery giant in a strong year for the industry, the fourth quarter of 2020 saw the company’s delivery revenue increase by 37% YoY; the hotel & travel segment generated 12.2% positive revenue.