Fanxiaojia

Fanxiaojia, which translates to "Fan 小圈" (Fan's Circle), was a social feature for sharing food delivery orders, internally tested by Meituan in July 2021. The feature was not a standalone company but rather an integrated function within the main Meituan app, accessible through the 'messages' section. It was designed as a food delivery sharing platform based on a user's network of WeChat and phone contacts.

The core function of Fanxiaojia allowed users, referred to as "饭友" (food buddies), to automatically share their food delivery orders with friends within their circle. Friends could see the restaurant name, price, and specific items ordered, and then comment, like, or even place the same order with a "follow me" button. Upon first enabling the feature, the system would automatically share the user's two most recent orders from the past 30 days. Subsequently, orders were shared automatically two minutes after payment, though users had the option to cancel the share on the payment confirmation page or delete posts later.

The development of Fanxiaojia was seen as Meituan's attempt to enter the social commerce space, aiming to increase user engagement and stickiness by creating a community around food. This move mirrored similar social features from other tech giants like Pinduoduo's "Pin Xiaoquan" and Taobao's "Taoyouquan". The business logic was to leverage social proof and recommendations from trusted friends to drive sales and consolidate user activity within the Meituan ecosystem, potentially increasing order frequency and customer loyalty. On July 30, 2021, Meituan's associated company, Beijing Sankuai Technology Co., Ltd., filed a trademark application for "饭小圈".

Keywords: food delivery, social commerce, Meituan, order sharing, social feature, online-to-offline, food recommendation, user engagement, peer-to-peer recommendation, in-app social network, food tech, mobile application feature