(Yicai Global) June 10 -- Chinese food delivery giant Meituan, which already has 69,000 employees, plans to nearly double that this year by recruiting 60,000 more across the country.

Meituan will recruit in more than 300 cities for logistics and marketing positions at its community group-buying business Meituan Youxuan and business-to-business food distribution arm Kuailv, the LatePost reported yesterday.

The Beijing-based company also plans to recruit 6,000 and 10,000 students who will graduate next year, up from 3,000 this year, the report said.

Meituan’s full-time employee count jumped almost 27 percent last year, according to its annual earnings report. About 20,000 workers are expected to leave the firm this year, the report showed.

Meituan has 570 million active users and will gain another 300 to 400 million new customers through community group buying, founder Wang Xing said at a first-quarter earnings press briefing.

It will become China’s largest retail platform by user numbers, with over 1 billion, he said, integrating online and offline businesses in takeaway ordering, air ticketing, hotel booking and fresh food buying.

Editor: Futura Costaglione