The popularity of food delivery services appearing in Hong Kong these years made our lives much easier, more convenient and reduced many misunderstandings caused by the language barriers with just a few taps on the smartphones.
Since Foodpanda entered the local market in 2014 and also brought up most of its rival companies, according to the estimation of Euromonitor International, the food delivery market in Hong Kong worths HK$423.2 million (US$54.43million) in 2016 and it will keep further expanding!Deliveroo(UK-based), Foodpanda(German-based) and UberEats(US-based) are the three dominant market players now and having real fierce competitions among each other. At the same time, the joining of many local startups such as “Honestbee”, “Plum”, “Jou Sun” etc. makes the competition more intensive.
Deliveroo VS Foodpanda VS UberEats
As the three biggest companies of food delivery service, they are all focusing on expanding the range of restaurant supplies, especially achieving the exclusive partnership with many famous and popular restaurants like Deliveroo got the partnership with “鏞記” (Yung Kee), 「黄枝記」(Wong Chi Kei) while Foodpanda works together with “鴻星海鮮酒家” （Superstar Seafood Restaurant). Also, improving customer service including speeding up the delivery time and ensuring the food quality is significant.
After trying on these three services, we found one common thing that the prices of dishes ordered through the apps are normally HK$10 to HK$20 more expensive than those listed on the restaurant’s’ menu, which is not a good news for customers. This time we will focus on the comparison among the user experience of the following three apps to see their differences!
Foodpanda
Having been in HK the longest, it tends to be the largest and owns the widest selections among these three. The delivery fee of many restaurants is for free but minimum consumption of 80 HKD is required. The design of the app now has improved a lot after being criticized for being too wordy without attractive food photos but many restaurants still have no pictures for each specific dish, which is not very user friendly.
The estimated delivery time is written on it but we can find many customers complaining about the delivery always being delayed and the food became cold or squashed due to the delay. There is no tracking function for you to check either. It’s possible to pay online via credit card, Apple Pay, Paypal or by cash.
Deliveroo
Recently it’s not hard to find the advertisements of Deliveroo everywhere. They are using different tools like MTR, tram to strongly promote their service as “Your Favorite Restaurants. Now Delivery in 32 Minutes” emphasising their fast delivery speed and best user experience. Having expanded its reach to include Sham Shui Po, Kwai Fong and Tsuen Wan last year, Deliveroo now has the largest footprint extending its coverage to the entire city and is going to double the number of restaurants from around 1,500 currently to 3,000.
The design of the App is relatively fashionable and beautiful and many of selections are medium to high-end restaurants. With the minimum consumption of 85 HKD required, plus, it charges 20~25 HKD of the delivery fee! But it’s also possible to get some discounts or free delivery sometimes. The secret weapon of Deliveroo is the speed. They are promising that they reach to your door in 15~25 mins from the restaurants nearby. And they accept online or cash payments for your choice.
UberEats
The most attracting part of UberEats is the 50% discount for new users and no delivery fee and no minimum order for current users! As the latest newcomers, to expand its customer base, foster a change of eating habits in HK and compete with the other two strong rivals, UberEats has to spare more budgets on the preferential offerings marketing strategy at the initial period.
To stand out in this competitive food delivery marketing, the most important thing would be whether the company can differentiate its business from others by promoting its unique strength or innovative ideas. For instance, cooperating with more vegan restaurants due to the growing popularity of vegetarian or using drone as a delivery method in the future to cut more employees off and reduce the cost as Foodpanda assumed. For the current stage, ensuring the food quality, improving the efficiency of deliveries, taking orders and customer service would be the essential factors determining its survival in this fierce battle!
If you have interest in improving your marketing strategies or building up business in Hong Kong, please feel free to contact TYA for supporting!
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