Meituan

There is no evidence the company has best practices in this area.

Meituan supports basic digital skills by partnering with universities to train senior students on smartphone use so that they can improve their livelihoods. Through its Life Service Digitalisation Talent Pool programme with Meituan University the company trains entrepreneurs in low-income areas with skills that enable them to find jobs or start their own businesses.

The company follows industry norms through its security incident response team and ISO 27001 certification.

The company partners with universities, think tanks and scientific institutions on research related to sustainable innovation.

There is no evidence that Meituan has programmes that aim to contribute to inclusive access to digital technologies. The company could demonstrate how it supports universal and affordable access to digital technologies for vulnerable groups, digital inclusivity for women and girls, and digital accessibility for people with disabilities. Meituan should also indicate how it distributes the wealth it creates among its shareholders and disclose its indirect economic impact.

Meituan has an opportunity to broaden its support for digital skills development, especially technical skills and school connectivity among vulnerable and under-represented groups. Given its reach throughout China, the company could play a greater role in supporting basic and technical digital skills development and school connectivity among vulnerable groups and in disadvantaged areas. The company should consider carrying out a third-party assessment of the impact of its existing programmes on basic and intermediate digital skills. It could also report on its contribution to those programmes.

Meituan provides limited evidence of activities relating to promoting safe and secure use of digital technologies. The company could better demonstrate how it assigns oversight and accountability for cybersecurity; monitors, remedies and reports cybersecurity incidents; and mitigates digital risks and harms for children. The company also has scope to implement a group-level privacy policy and make a high-level commitment to child online safety.

There is little evidence of Meituan supporting open, sustainable, inclusive and ethical innovation. The company could demonstrate how it practices open innovation and supports tech innovation ecosystems, collaborates on big data for sustainable development, and applies inclusive and ethical research and development principles.

No policies or commitments related to respect for human rights were found in the public domain. There is no public evidence of Meituan committing to respect the ILO fundamental labour rights, nor does the company disclose a process to identify, assess and mitigate the salient human rights risks associated with its own operations and business relationships. While the company has a grievance mechanism for its workers to raise human rights concerns and complaints, it is unclear if complainants have the option to identify themselves or remain anonymous; furthermore, Meituan does not have a grievance mechanisms for external stakeholders.

While Meituan complies with health and safety regulations, it does commit to respect the health and safety of workers in a public policy statement. Similarly, while the company monitors the health and safety performance of its business relationships, it does not require that its business relationships commit to health and safety. The company discloses no relevant information in reference to living wages, collective bargaining or working hours. For example, the company does not specify that workers are not required to work more than 60 hours a week including overtime. While Meituan discloses some information in reference to diversity, it does not provide a breakdown of diversity within each employee category.

Meituan does not publicly state that it prohibits bribery and corruption, but does include anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with business relationships. However, the company does not disclose any relevant information in relation to tax, such as a global tax strategy or income tax payments for all of the company’s tax jurisdictions. Furthermore, Meituan lacks disclosure across the board in relation to lobbying and political engagement. For example, the company does not state that it does not make political contributions and does not disclose its lobbying expenditures.

The below datasheet disaggregates scores within the three core social measurement areas and by specific indicators.