Nicky Zheng; Director, Investor Relations; Dingdong (Cayman) Ltd

Changlin Liang; Chief Executive Officer, Founder, Director; Dingdong (Cayman) Ltd

Song Wang; Chief Financial Officer; Dingdong (Cayman) Ltd

Thomas Chong; Analyst; Jefferies LLC

Yang Bai; Analyst; China International Capital Corporation Limited

Operator

Good morning, and good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Dingdong Limited first quarter 2025 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) Please note that the event is being recorded.
I will now turn the conference over to the first speaker today, Nicky Zheng, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Nicky Zheng

Thank you. Hello, everyone. Welcome to Dingdong’s first quarter 2025 earnings call. With me today are Mr. Changlin Liang, our Founder and CEO; and Mr. Song Wang, our CFO. You can refer to our first quarter 2025 financial results on our website at ir.100.me. You can also access a replay of this call on our IR website onece it becomes available a few hours after its conclusion.
For today’s call, management will go through their prepared remarks, which will be followed by a question-and-answer session. Before we continue, I would like to refer you to our safe harbor statement in our earnings press release, which also applies to this call.
As we will be making forward-looking statements, please note that all numbers stated in the following management’s prepared remarks are in RMB terms. And we will discuss non-GAAP measures today, which are more thoroughly explained and reconciled to the most comparable measures reported in our earnings release and filings with the SEC.
I will now turn the call to our first speaker today, the founder and the CEO of Dingdong, Mr. Liang.

Changlin Liang

(spoken in foreign language) (interpreted) Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining the Dindong earnings call for Q1 2025. As of the first quarter of 2025, we have achieved non-GAAP profitability for 10 consecutive quarters and GAAP profitability for five quarters.
Additionally, we’ve seen positive year on year revenue growth for five straight Quarters. This consistent growth in both scale and profitability has undoubtedly laid a strong foundation for our future development. In today’s call, I’ll outline our operating performance in Q1, offer a thorough analysis of our product status and discuss recent strategic insights.
In the first quarter of 2025, Dingdong reported a GMV of RMB5.96 billion, a 7.9% increase compared to the previous year. Revenue for the same period reached RMB5.48 billion, a rise of 9.1% year on year. Non-GAAP net profits stood at RMB30 million with a non-GAAP net profit margin of 0.6%.
GAAP net profit was RMB8 million with a GAAP net profit margin of 0.1%. Building on the profits from 2024, we successfully achieved both profitability and growth in scale in the first quarter.
The first quarter of 2025 marked the commencement of Dingdong’s implementation of the 4G strategy, which emphasizes good users, good products, good services and good mindshare. Significant adjustments have been made to the company’s objectives, organizational structure, and evaluation methods. We continue to experience transitional challenges. Nevertheless, even amidst these difficulties, we have achieved year on year performance growth.
The growth in performance was primarily fueled by higher user engagement in existing markets and our continued improvement in product development capabilities and optimization efforts. This quarter, the order volume rose by 12.1% year-on-year, with the average daily active user count surpassing 2 million, a 4.5% increase year on year.
This reflects strong market demand, enhanced appeal of Dingdong’s products and our upgraded product development capabilities. Regarding user conversion, the average daily transaction users exceeded 830,000, an 11.1% year-on-year increase relating to our effective strategies in user acquisition and traffic conversion.
This conversion rate for ordering users improved by 2.4 percentage points year-on-year, thanks to the continued enhancement in product development, operational efficiency and base recommendations as well as the appeal of our offerings.
This has created a more seamless transition from browsing to purchasing, user stickiness continue to increase with average monthly order frequency rising to 4.1 times, an increase of 2.4% year-on-year, driven by our superior shopping experience that includes both products and services which helps users cultivate a habit of frequent repurchases.
The growth in these metrics marked a promising start of our 4G strategy, which emphasizes good users, good products, good services and good mind share. People often say that a good start is half the battle. We firmly believe that we are undertaking the difficult yet right course of action, which will undoubtedly activate a positive development flywheel and deliver better performance.
Regionally, the Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai regions remain our primary growth drivers. In this quarter, Shanghai’s GMV rose by 5% year-on-year. While Zhejiang and Jiangsu saw increases of 17.8% and 13.9%, respectively. All cities within these regions reported positive year-on-year growth, notable mentions include Guangzhou, Nantong and Jinhua, each passing 50% growth.
Additionally, Huzhou and Foshan in the Guangzhou Shenzhen area experienced over 40% year-on-year growth. This year, we are further accelerating the deployment of our frontline fulfillment stations in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai.
By the end of Q1, we had established 14 new frontline stations. By strategically optimizing the layout and density of our frontline fulfillment network in key areas, we aim to create a more efficient fulfillment system and enhance our cost structure, thereby continually improving overall operational efficiency.
In the last quarter of 2024, the entire company aligned around a shared understanding which is we work together to improve product quality and develop differentiated products. After determining the 4G strategy of good users, good products, good services and good mind share, we established performance goals and organizational structures that support these strategic objectives.
As a result, in the first quarter, more and more differentiated and good products appeared on our app and gained user popularity, driven by methods such as restructuring the product business units, establishing an incentive scheme that rewards the development of differentiated and good products creating a product life cycle accountability system, having core executives to visit product sources and requiring product developers to respond to consumers’ negative reviews personally.
For instance, our meat products showcased the strength of self-operated meat factories, which drive our product innovation. After establishing the trusted daily fresh brand, we introduced the Hehuatian brand, emphasizing health and taste along with the black pig pork label, Black Diamond family.
Furthermore, we began expanding our focus on the de-processing sector within the leisure goods segment, emphasizing health trends, selecting premium raw materials and crafting healthy, tasty, daily preparations and snacks.
For example, our Hehuatian Australian Grain-Fed Wagyu Beef Crisp, recently won the Golden Carrot Award during our good product competition, thanks to its top-quality Australian wagyu beef and distinctive cheese flavor.
Since its early March launch, it has rapidly gained popularity among consumers, achieving sales of around RMB3.4 million. Orders that include this item recorded an average order value of RMB139, outperforming the company average by nearly 100%, demonstrating how good products attract to good users. Our product development team prioritizes quality and meticulously examines every stage to ensure that each product needs Dingdong’s high standards.
Moreover, our product developers have won over users with their dedication and professionalism. For instance, users fondly refer to our product creators as [guava sister and sorryfish brother] on social media because they developed the acclaimed tree ripe rich cream guava and (inaudible) shepherd’s purse, both of which won awards in our product competition.
It is widely acknowledged that in the present consumer environment encounters substantial challenges. The instant retail sector has become markedly saturated with competitors, resulting in heightened competition. There’s a common concern about maintaining profitability amid fierce rivalry and there are apprehensions regarding the sustainability of Dingdong as a viable entity it’s competition. What advantages and opportunities do we possess.
Firstly, we’re fortunate that in previous rounds of competition, we do not simply follow trends, rather we stay true to the fundamental of business. Meticulously developing a comprehensive model, enhancing our supply chain and focusing on key regions. Throughout each stage of competition, we make consistent advancements, driving deeply into our strategies and ensuring adequate resources.
Today, we not only possess a robust technological accumulation and a solid foundation within our supply chain, but also our cash reserves are healthy, enabling us to sustain profitability. All of these factors have established a strong foundation for us to keep succeeding in this new phase of competition.
In conclusion, in the context of today’s intense competition, we have identified the following core advantages, robust supply chain capabilities. The company was founded to provide consumers with healthy and high-quality food ingredients.
From the inception of our operations, we recognize that our role could not be limited to merely serving as an intermediary or sales channel. Rather, we had to drill deeply into each aspect of the supply chain to enhance quality and improve efficiency.
We engaged comprehensively in every stage of the process, including cultivating and producing food ingredient sourcing, logistics and warehousing, grading and packaging, food research and development, distribution, operations and delivery to consumers. We refer to the strategic approach as narrow and deep as narrow as an inch, yet as deep and a mile.
Our operational product categories and revenue scale may not highlight a competitive advantage, but we have a substantial lead in enhancing and strengthening the supply chain. Importantly, throughout the transformation and upgrading of our supply chain, we have established a robust IT system that enables us to continuously optimize costs, enhance efficiency and replicate our supply chain capabilities across various regions and sectors.
Recently, we have formed a strategic partnership with the DFI group based in Hong Kong. DFI is recognized leading global trading and retail company, while they have previously explored cooperation with numerous Chinese companies, they ultimately chose to partner with Dingdong.
Their decision to — the decision is driven by Dingdong’s robust fresh grocery supply chain capabilities and advanced IT system capabilities. This in turn is a testament to our supply chain effectiveness.
Due to our robust supply chain capabilities, we have evolved beyond a conventional retail company, thus positioning ourselves to withstand the intense competition within the instant retail market as time progresses. The advantages of our supply chain will become increasingly apparent, generating profit margins that substantially surpass those of instant retail enterprises.
Distinct positioning. Our competitors are mostly positioned as online supermarkets, while Dingdong focuses on quality ingredients and products. They mostly follow a strategy that is wide as a mile yet as mile yet as shallow as an inch.
In contrast with our approach of being narrow as an inch yet deep as a mile, competitors rely on price wars for our customer traffic, whereas we prioritize quality and service to attract users. Operational data shows that we outperformed competitors in key metrics of user trust and quality such as AOV, repurchase rate, gross profit margin and satisfaction. While some see as a basic retail service, we are a full chain fresh grocery supply chain company driven by digital technology.
With a robust ecosystem as mentioned, we have established a strategic partnership with DFI in Hong Kong. Concurrently, in the international markets, we are fostering in-depth cooperation with HKTVmall in Hong Kong, FairPrice in Singapore and retail groups in Central Asia and the Middle East.
On one hand, we provide advanced IT capabilities to these excellent retail partners to enhance their fresh grocery supply chain efficiencies. Simultaneously, we also introduced China’s high-quality ingredients and culinary offers to overseas markets.
In the domestic market, we have formed strategic partnerships with numerous agricultural and food research and development institutions in agricultural and food companies. We use our retail and supply chain capabilities to empower these organizations and foster collective growth.
Internally, we have incubated [Gui] Food Group, a leader in China for the R&D and production of preprepared meals, meats, grains and soy products. [Gui’s] products are distributed through various channels beyond Dingdong, showing consistent rapid revenue growth and profit margins, (inaudible) a world-renowned food seasoning company has traditionally sold its products to retailers.
Now we are the sole provider of pre-prepared meals to (inaudible), facilitating broader overseas distribution of our products. This collaboration highlights our product capabilities and future development potential.
Organizational ability and implementation. Since its inception, Dingdong has faced fierce competition from both start-ups and large companies. Eight years later, most rivals have vanished. While giants with similar businesses continue to incur losses. Dingdong not only survived, but also achieved profit for 10 consecutive quarters, demonstrating our competitiveness and vitality.
It’s been eight years since we started our business and the colleagues who join us on the journey are still actively working alongside us today. Over time, we face various challenges that have require us to make some strategic changes. As part of evolving our strategy, we have also restructured our organization to help our management team adapt quickly to the changing needs of the business.
This year to strengthen our supply chain and create competitive advantages, we have introduced the 4G strategy focusing on good users, good products, good services and good mind share. This shift has led to a significant overhaul of our structure, where our core executives have taken on new roles in product development and improving our supply chain capabilities. Everyone on the team is focusing on the big picture, embracing the new responsibilities with enthusiasm.
After five months of hard work, we’ve begun to see some great results Dingdong is rolling out more unique and high-quality products. Our users are happier than before. And our supply chain efficiency is steadily improving. As we continue moving forward, these benefits are becoming even more obvious. This really highlights our strong organization or ability to adapt and bounce back in the phase of adversity.
It is Dingdong’s distinct positioning and unique advantages, we’re confident that we can remain competitive in various competitive landscape. Over time, our advantages will become increasingly evident, particularly as this strategic adjustment is progressively implemented, we anticipate a swift recovery from the short-term challenges induced by the transition, leading to a substantial enhancement in sales volume, increased innovation within our business practices and further optimization of our profit margins.
Finally, I’ll provide an update on the outlook for Q2 2025. We anticipate maintaining year-on-year growth in scale and achieving non-GAAP profitability for the second quarter of 2025. We’re still in the transitional phase of transformation, but this period will pass quickly.
By the end of the year, Dingdong’s advantages will be distinctly evident. We expect significant growth in both performance scale and profit margin by then. This wraps up my speech. Thank you.
Now I would like to invite our CFO, Wang Song to discuss the company’s financial performance.

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