National Business Wire (Dec 15) -- Chinese food delivery and e-commerce giant Meituan (3690.HK) had closely examined the Middle East market, but is still keeping a wait-and-see approach to overseas expansion, according to Chinese media outlet 36Kr.

From October last year to the middle of this year, Wenqian Zhu, Vice President of Corp Dev & Investments at Meituan, visited the Middle East several times, the report said on Friday.

Apart from understanding the local business policies, the most critical thing Zhu did was to investigate the competition in the food delivery business, sources close to the matter said.

In May, Zhu, together with Meituan co-founder and CEO Xing Wang, President of Meituan's At-Home Business Group Puzhong Wang and a number of key executives visited the Middle East again, and met with a number of Saudi royal family members and ministers.

By mid-year, Meituan had once tried to recruit Human Resources Development (HRD) staff to form a Middle East team and considered choosing Riyadh as its first pilot city, but then shelved the move, the sources said.

"There was a disagreement at the top," an insider explained.

While Meituan has not decided on a pilot city or a specific business to enter the Middle East market, the moves in the region have certainly fueled imaginations of its overseas expansion.

Over the past years, Dubai, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, has been the first choice for Chinese companies to explore overseas expansion in the Middle East because of its more complete infrastructure, higher level of GDP per capita, and friendlier business environment.

According to 36Kr, Meituan has internally considered Dubai as a priority pilot city to venturing into the Middle East.