(Yicai Global) May 28 -- Shares in Meituan slumped today after the Chinese on-demand food delivery firm logged a tripling of its first-quarter losses from the same period last year, despite revenue doubling, due to huge investments in new initiatives.

Meituan’s stock price [HKG:3690] closed down 2.43 percent at HKD265.20 (USD34.20). The firm, which is also the subject of a number of anti-monopoly probes, has seen more than HKD1 trillion (USD128.8 billion) wiped off its valuation since this year’s peak of HKD451.50 in mid-February.

The company, which has been spending heavily to extend its community online bulk buying empire into China’s rural areas, racked up losses of CNY4.9 billion (USD761 million) in the three months ended March 31, according to the Beijing-based firm’s latest earnings report released today. Revenue, though, more than doubled to CNY37 billion (USD5.8 billion).

Revenue from its meal delivery service as well as hotel and travel businesses jumped two-fold in the first quarter to CNY20.6 billion (USD3.2 billion) and CNY6.6 billion respectively, raking in CNY1.1 billion (USD172.7 million) and CNY2.8 billion in profit.

But CNY8 billion (USD1.2 billion) was squandered on new initiatives such as rural e-commerce, bike sharing, business-to-business catering and online grocery retail services, despite the segment bringing in revenue of CNY9.9 billion (USD1.5 billion).

Spending on research and development also increased significantly, jumping 52 percent to CNY3.5 billion.

The company had a record number of annual users and merchants as of the end of March at 570 million and 7.1 million respectively, it said.

Editor: Kim Taylor