Engineering Organization Behind 1 Million Orders: Lessons from Meituan's Drone Delivery Scaling

I noticed an interesting detail: Meituan's drones have completed over 1 million cumulative orders for low-altitude logistics delivery across six cities: Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Dubai. This number itself isn't staggering—compared to the traditional food delivery volume of tens of millions per day, 1 million orders might just represent a few hours' peak load. But if we shift our perspective to the level of engineering organization, what lies behind these 1 million orders is the team's ability to transform technical solutions into replicable and scalable services across multiple cities, regulatory environments, and climate conditions.