General Manager Lucas Xie Explains How Keeta Expanded Across All Seven UAE Emirates in Just One Year.
As Keeta UAE marks its first anniversary, General Manager Lucas Xie reflects on the rapid growth and expansion of the on-demand food delivery platform from Chinese technology company Meituan across the Emirates.
In this interview, Xie, who oversees Keeta’s strategy, operations and expansion in the UAE, discusses how the company has adapted lessons from its experience in China to suit the local market, supported UAE merchants and responded to the country’s diverse consumer preferences. He also explains how AI, data and strategic partnerships are expected to shape the platform’s second year of operations.
As Keeta marks its first anniversary in the UAE, what have been the key achievements, and which challenges have shaped the business?
Looking back at our first year, I am proud not only of how quickly we expanded, but also of how we managed that growth. Keeta established a presence across all seven emirates within 90 days.
By the end of our first year, we had served millions of customers and completed tens of millions of orders, supported by around 10,000 restaurant and merchant brands operating across more than 40,000 locations. Our delivery partners also travelled more than 200 million kilometres to fulfil those orders.
While those figures demonstrate the speed of Keeta’s expansion, they represent only part of our first-year journey. As the business grew, we also focused on expanding responsibly and becoming more closely connected with the communities we serve.
Through KeeShare, more than 1,200 merchants came together during Ramadan to give customers an opportunity to share meals with riders. Our partnerships with Khalifa Fund and Dubai Chambers have focused on supporting local businesses, while collaboration with transport authorities has helped strengthen rider safety and improve service standards.
“The challenge has been delivering a consistent experience across a country where customer habits and operating conditions can vary considerably. We responded by adapting our forecasting and training to the realities of each market. That experience taught us that scale is only valuable when people can rely on the service behind it.”
Lucas Xie, General Manager of Keeta UAE
Having led and scaled major delivery operations in China, which lessons proved most valuable in the UAE, and what did you need to rethink?
My experience in China taught me that operating at scale involves much more than processing a large number of orders. It requires systems capable of anticipating demand, coordinating logistics in real time and responding quickly when circumstances change.
Working with Meituan’s technology gave me a strong understanding of how intelligent dispatch systems, route planning and automated order tracking can bring structure and efficiency to highly complex delivery operations.
When I moved to the UAE, I knew those capabilities would be valuable, but it was equally clear that we could not simply replicate the same operating model. The regulatory environment is different, customer expectations can vary even within the same city, and demand patterns can change considerably from one neighbourhood to another. Seasonal occasions and daily routines also influence ordering behaviour in distinct ways.
My role has therefore been to identify which lessons from China can provide a strong foundation while remaining flexible about what needs to be adapted for the UAE.
The UAE has reinforced my belief that even the most advanced technology needs an agile local team behind it. Data can tell us what is happening, but local knowledge helps us understand why it is happening and determine the right response.
In a competitive UAE food delivery market, how is Keeta building long-term relevance beyond promotions and short-term customer acquisition?
Promotions can encourage customers to try a platform, but they cannot create lasting loyalty on their own. Long-term relevance comes from providing a service people can depend on, with genuine choice, consistent delivery and clear value every time they place an order.
Our On-time Promise is one example of this approach, introducing greater accountability while giving customers meaningful choices across different cuisines, budgets and occasions. The scale we achieved during our first year indicates that customers have been willing to incorporate Keeta into their regular routines.
Long-term relevance also depends on the strength of the restaurant network and how effectively the platform connects customers with options suited to their tastes, budgets and locations.
For merchants, that means building transparent relationships and using technology to improve meaningful customer discovery. These fundamentals are what can turn a customer’s first order into a lasting habit.
How has Keeta adapted to the UAE’s diverse communities, dining habits and expectations around convenience and value?
With more than 200 nationalities represented in the UAE, there is no single definition of an everyday customer. People bring different tastes and traditions to the market, while their daily routines can also vary considerably.
A family ordering dinner together may have very different requirements from someone ordering between meetings or a customer looking for a dish that reminds them of home.
Our first-year data revealed several common patterns. Evenings were the busiest period for orders, while Eid Al Fitr and Eid Al Adha ranked among our busiest occasions. Fried chicken and burgers were two of the most popular categories overall.
Among some of our most active customers, Arab cuisine was a clear favourite, with mandi emerging as a preferred dish.
These insights help us plan delivery capacity and make restaurant discovery more relevant to customers. They also influence how we respond to important local occasions.
KeeShare, for example, was designed around Ramadan’s culture of generosity, providing customers with a simple way to share a meal with their rider.
Adapting successfully to the UAE requires understanding both the diversity of the market and the occasions that bring its communities together.
What impact has Keeta had on local restaurants and smaller merchants, and how are you helping them grow sustainably?
One of the achievements I am most proud of from our first year is the number of businesses that chose to grow alongside us.
This has given local concepts and smaller businesses access to a platform serving millions of customers, allowing them to appear alongside established international brands and reach consumers beyond their immediate neighbourhoods.
However, simply being listed on a platform does not necessarily translate into meaningful growth.
At the merchant level, the measures that matter include how many new customers a business can reach, whether its visibility improves, how its order volumes develop and whether that demand can be sustained over time.
We use insights from the platform to understand these patterns, improve restaurant discovery and develop campaigns based on actual customer behaviour.
Our partnership with Khalifa Fund extends this support to Emirati entrepreneurs and home-grown food businesses, helping them strengthen their digital presence and prepare for sustainable expansion.
The objective is to provide merchants with more than temporary exposure. We want to help them better understand their customers, develop sustained demand and make more informed decisions about the next stage of their growth.
As AI and changing consumer expectations reshape food delivery, what are Keeta’s priorities for its second year in the UAE?
Customers should not have to think about the technology operating behind an order. What matters is that the service feels reliable and understands what they need.
“That is where AI and data can make a practical difference. Keeta draws on Meituan’s experience in using technology to anticipate demand, coordinate dispatch and improve route planning across complex delivery environments. It can also help merchants understand changing customer preferences and allow operational teams to identify potential issues before they affect an order.”
Lucas Xie, General Manager of Keeta UAE
During our second year, the priority will be to apply these capabilities more deeply across the UAE.
We want to deliver a more consistent experience across the emirates, provide merchants with more useful insights and continue improving last-mile operations through local partnerships. Our collaborations with local authorities have also demonstrated how technology and training can contribute to safer and more efficient delivery operations.
The food delivery sector will continue to become more sophisticated, but innovation should always address a genuine need. Its value ultimately comes from making every order more dependable and improving the experience for customers, merchants and delivery partners.
How has your experience across technology, logistics and new business development shaped your leadership of Keeta UAE?
My career has taught me that strategy and operations cannot be treated separately. A strong customer proposition can only be sustained if logistics perform consistently and merchant partners also receive meaningful value.
New business development may create an opportunity, but technology and operations ultimately determine whether that opportunity can scale sustainably.
That perspective influenced how I approached Keeta’s launch in the UAE. I pay close attention to data, but I also place considerable importance on feedback from customers, merchants and teams working on the ground.
Data can help us identify a pattern. Speaking with the people closest to that pattern helps us understand what needs to change.
Working across different markets has also made me comfortable questioning assumptions early. A model may have succeeded elsewhere, but it still needs to demonstrate that it is relevant to the local market.
For me, sustainable growth means pursuing ambitious goals while remaining disciplined about the experience we are building and the value we create for everyone involved.
