Capturing a bigger piece of the food delivery pie

What does the future of food delivery in Asia look like?

Faced with the re-opening of restaurant dine-in and challenging headwinds from macro trends, Southeast Asia’s food delivery platforms have seen comparatively modest growth in 2023 compared to earlier years of steep acceleration.

Southeast Asia’s total food delivery platforms GMV (gross modest value) grew a modest 5% YoY to reach US$17.1B in 2023, mirroring the growth rate observed in 2022. (Momentum Works)

Most of the growth has been driven by smaller markets such as Vietnam (27% YoY) and Malaysia (9% YoY), while larger markets including Indonesia and Thailand have registered low single digit growth, and Singapore’s topline remained flat.

Changing consumer behaviours and demands have contributed to the widening gap between leaders and laggards, intensifying competition for industry share. As a result, resources have been shifted away from expansion and new market acquisition, and more towards category leadership and operational efficiency.

The good news is, bright spots still exist for growth.

Leading food delivery players have chosen to prioritise expanding their revenue streams and improving consumer loyalty to achieve sustainability and capture new opportunities. Market-leading strategies include:

Implementing targeted, cross-platform advertising
Rolling out of consumer subscriptions plans
Developing in-house payment systems
Strengthening offline revenue with restaurant POS solutions
Improving efficiency of delivery operations

But in an industry characterised by slim profits, the true key to increasing revenue lies in winning over the hearts and wallets of long-term, recurring customers.

This means meeting their expectations for faster service resolutions, greater personalisation, more sophisticated engagement experiences, and greater confidence in the safety of their personal data.