大众点评 (Dianping)
Platform · this deep dive is built from the official pages of the platform itself and of the tools that support it.
Overview
大众点评 (Dianping, "Dazhong Dianping") is a Chinese review platform for venues and services: restaurants, beauty, entertainment, hotels, healthcare. The platform defines itself as a local services information platform and an independent third-party consumer rating platform which, besides the directory part, runs group buying, table reservations and electronic loyalty cards.
The legal owner is 上海汉涛信息咨询有限公司 (Shanghai Hantao Information Consulting Co., Ltd.), named as a party to the user agreement in the terms of service. The company is part of the Meituan group, which until 2020 was called Meituan Dianping.
Unlike the other platforms in this category, here business is not merely given a place — business is the platform's second side. A venue must have a record: a listing with an address, a rating, reviews and offers. But the terms are strict: entry only with documents, and manipulation of reviews carries a detailed scale of penalties.
Who's here
The Meituan group does not disclose Dianping's audience separately — the numbers are published for the company as a whole. In its 2025 annual report Meituan states that revenue grew by 8.1% to 364.9 billion yuan against 337.6 billion in 2024, while the loss came to 23.4 billion yuan against a profit of 35.8 billion a year earlier. The segment Dianping belongs to is described by the company this way: Core Local Commerce revenue grew by 4.2% to 260.8 billion yuan, helped among other things by steady growth in the number of active merchants buying online promotion; at the same time the segment's operating result went 6.9 billion yuan into the red because of intensified competition.
The platform's own rules outline its coverage differently — by type of venue: they apply to merchants of the 大众点评 app, mini-program and website operating in the "in-store" and "on-site visit" formats.
Estimating the audience from outside is hard. The international version of the app on Google Play shows more than 1 million downloads and a rating of 2.4, but its own description says the service works only in China, covers more than 300 cities, and contains more than a million venues and more than 20 million reviews. Those numbers are clearly out of date: in China the app is distributed through local stores rather than Google Play, and the description there has not been updated for years.
Getting started
A private user registers with the group's single account: Dianping's terms state that you can use the services by registering a new Meituan Dianping account or logging into an existing one.
For a company the procedure is different and is set out in the group's rules. A merchant may be a legal entity or an organization registered with the PRC industry and commerce administration authorities and holding a business licence (营业执照, yingye zhizhao), or a natural person for whom registration is not required by law; if the activity is subject to licensing, the corresponding permit is mandatory, and tax registration is mandatory in all cases.
The onboarding itself is formalized by contract: the merchant submits documents and signs a contract — electronically or on paper — after which an online outlet (门店, mendian) is opened; the package includes the licence, permits, a trademark registration certificate or a power of attorney to use it, and copies of the manager's identity document. If any of the documents changes, the company must notify the platform and submit updated papers within 3 working days; forged or expired documents bring removal of offers from publication, demotion of the outlet in listings, hiding it and disabling the merchant.
After that the work happens in the dashboard: the merchant logs into the "Merchant Center" (商家中心, shangjia zhongxin) under an administrative account, and all actions under that account count as actions of the company itself. For day-to-day tasks there is a separate product: the platform's help centre describes "大众点评商家版" (Dazhong Dianping shangjiaban, "Dianping for merchants") as a single window for marketing and management through an official WeChat account, where you can fill out venue details, manage reputation and look at data; the same page gives the support phone number 400 880 5597.
One thing to keep in mind separately: your venue's listing may have been created by someone who does not own it. The terms warn that another person can obtain management rights over a listing added by a user, through the "认领" (renling, claiming) operation.
What you can publish
A user publishes reviews in text, photos and video, and adds and refines venue listings. There is a creator format too: the terms describe "点评头条" (Dianping Toutiao) as a self-publishing platform inside Dianping where a user with access granted publishes review articles, guides, photos and video.
A merchant publishes information about the venue and about goods and services, and the requirements are direct: the information must be truthful, lawful, accurate and complete and be updated promptly; false and misleading information is prohibited; the platform may not be used for activity connected with gambling, pornography, violence, money laundering, tax evasion, drugs and fraud.
For advertising materials there is an extra condition: when placing promotion or advertising, the merchant must hold the qualifications required by law and, by an appointed deadline, provide supporting documents — an advertising review certificate, trademark rights, copyrights, consent to use a person's likeness, permit numbers.
How to grow
The platform lists its promotion options on its business page: keyword promotion, group buying, "推广通" (Tuiguangtong) — promotion based on big data analysis for the sake of brand visibility, electronic loyalty cards and reservations. A caveat is essential: that page carries a 2003–2011 copyright, meaning it describes a product set from a decade ago. It gives no current rates, only the sales department's phone numbers.
Far more important for visibility is behaviour around reviews, because that is what the sanctions system is built on. The platform lists the measures available to it: publishing details of the violation on the venue's page, lowering the star rating, demotion in ranking on recommendation and search pages, a ban on appearing in rankings (including "必吃榜", Bichibang, the must-eat list), a ban on distributing content, hiding the star rating, deleting some reviews and suspending commercial cooperation.
In other words, the only growth path the platform describes is to buy promotion and not to break the review rules. The rules provide no mechanism at all for "organic" intervention in the rating: any such action is classified as a violation.
Path to monetization
Dianping pays neither merchants nor review authors in money. The terms describe a user's reward as internal indicators: contributions earn contribution points, points, community learning points and badges. An outright ban on commercializing reviews is set out in the same terms: a user may not inflate reviews and charge venues for it, take part in writing and publishing false reviews for gain, or threaten a bad rating while demanding extra benefits.
The platform's money flow comes from venues: it is the commission on group buying and payment for promotion. At Meituan group level this income shows up in the accounts as online marketing revenue within the Core Local Commerce segment, and the company writes separately about the growing number of merchants paying for promotion.
Tools and automation
We found no official open API for outside developers at Dianping: integrations go through the merchant dashboard and the group's mobile apps. Appealing a sanction is tied to an app too: the merchant opens the "经营宝" (Jingyingbao) app, goes to the "Integrity Center" and the point change history, while ticketing and tourism venues get a separate web dashboard; the platform replies within 3 working days.
External scheduling and analytics services whose support for Dianping is confirmed by a source are absent from this guide's database.
The platform restricts automatic data collection: its robots.txt closes the site entirely to the GPTBot, ByteSpider, ToutiaoSpider and several other robots, and for the rest allows only the /note/* section. On a request to the front page the site redirects to a verification page at verify.meituan.com — this is protection against automated requests, and it must not be bypassed.
Limits and rules
- Entry only with documents. Licence, permits, tax registration, contract.
- Integrity points. A merchant has 12 points a year; violations deduct from 2 to 12.
- The scale of penalties. 2 points — 7 days of restrictions; 6 points — 30 days; 9 points — 90 days plus irreversible deletion of reviews from the 90 days before the penalty; 12 points — 180 days plus deletion of reviews from 180 days.
- What counts as a violation. Positive reviews written by the venue itself, by its relatives, employees or partners; hiring users with discounts, gifts and money; exchanging benefits for a review; suggesting the text or offering the use of an AI generator; demanding to be shown the review; pressuring a user; attacks on competitors; false use of the symbols of the platform's official rankings.
- Legal frame. The rules rest on the Civil Code of the PRC, the anti-unfair-competition law and the e-commerce law; disputes are heard by the court at the operator's location in the Yangpu district of Shanghai.
- Document dates. The review rules were revised on 30 April 2026 and took effect on 15 May 2026; the user terms date from 28 December 2018.
Who it's for
The platform is mandatory for any business with a physical location in China: a restaurant, a salon, a clinic, a hotel, an entertainment venue. A Dianping listing is part of the purchase decision, and you have to maintain it whether you like it or not: if you do not create it, users will, and rights to it can be obtained only through the "认领" (renling) procedure.
It does not suit companies without a legal entity in the PRC and without a Chinese licence: entry is closed at the document level. It does not suit promoting a product remotely from abroad — the platform is tied to a venue and a city.
And a separate warning for agencies: the sanctions the platform describes for review manipulation are applied to the venue, not to the contractor. Every "lift the rating" scheme is listed in the rules outright as a violation, with the loss of six months' worth of reviews.
Tools for this platform
The list is built from the tools' own facts: every line is a tool's statement that it supports the platform, with the source named. A tool missing from the list only means we have no such statement.
Social listening:
Verified data
The checked data this deep dive rests on.
About the platform
the operator is 上海汉涛信息咨询有限公司 (Shanghai Hantao Information Consulting Co., Ltd.), a party to the user agreement · the source is dated 2018-12-28
The terms are dated 28 December 2018
source, checked 2026-07-28
the platform defines itself as a local services information platform and an independent third-party consumer rating platform
source, checked 2026-07-28
Who's here
the Meituan group reports revenue of 364,9 billion yuan for 2025 (+8,1 %) and a loss of 23,4 billion; Core Local Commerce segment revenue is 260,8 billion (+4,2 %), with a segment operating loss of 6,9 billion
The report contains no separate figures for Dianping
source, checked 2026-07-28
Getting started
entry is by contract: submitting documents, an electronic or paper signature, opening an online outlet; changed documents are submitted within 3 working days
《美团商户管理制度》, article 12
source, checked 2026-07-28
Account and access
the work is done in the «Merchant Center» (商家中心) under an administrative account; all actions under it count as actions of the company
《美团商户管理制度》, article 13
source, checked 2026-07-28
Business terms
a merchant may be a legal entity or organization holding a Chinese 营业执照 licence and the necessary permits, or a natural person for whom registration is not required; tax registration is mandatory
《美团商户管理制度》, article 11
source, checked 2026-07-28
«大众点评商家版» is a single window for marketing and management through an official WeChat account: venue details, reputation work, data; phone 400 880 5597
A help page with no date
source, checked 2026-07-28
Content
a venue listing may be added by a user; another member obtains management rights over it through the 认领 procedure
source, checked 2026-07-28
Promotion
the business page lists keyword promotion, group buying, 推广通, electronic loyalty cards and reservations
source, checked 2026-07-28
How the money works here
there are no cash payouts to review authors: the reward is contribution points, points, community learning points and badges
Paid reviews and rating inflation are explicitly prohibited
source, checked 2026-07-28
Restrictions
《大众点评商户评价诚信管理总则》, revision of 30 April 2026, in force since 15 May 2026: 12 integrity points a year, with 2-12 points deducted per violation
Self-written reviews, hiring authors, exchanging benefits for a review, suggesting the text and AI generators are explicitly prohibited
source, checked 2026-07-28
2 points — 7 days of restrictions; 6 points — 30 days; 9 points — 90 days plus irreversible deletion of reviews from 90 days; 12 points — 180 days plus deletion of reviews from 180 days
Measures: publishing the violation on the venue's page, lowering the stars, demotion in listings, a ban on rankings, suspension of cooperation
source, checked 2026-07-28
robots.txt closes the site to GPTBot, ByteSpider, ToutiaoSpider and others and allows the rest only /note/*; the front page serves a verify.meituan.com challenge
Bot protection was not bypassed
source, checked 2026-07-28
Legal
disputes over the review rules are heard by the court at the operator's location in the Yangpu district of Shanghai
source, checked 2026-07-28
when placing advertising a merchant must hold the qualifications required by law and provide supporting documents: an advertising review certificate, trademark rights, copyrights, consent to use a likeness
source, checked 2026-07-28
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