Baedal Minjok Provides Additional 15 Billion KRW Support to Overcome COVID-19

This Year, a Total of 66.4 Billion KRW Support for Overcoming COVID-19

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Cheol-hyun] Baedal Minjok (hereinafter Baemin) will provide an additional 15 billion KRW in support to self-employed restaurant owners and riders to overcome the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Woowa Brothers, the operator of Baemin, announced on the 27th that they have prepared measures such as advertising fee and commission refunds, support for packaging and delivery supplies, and additional rider support to help small merchants and newly entering self-employed business owners who are facing a crisis of customer decline and sales drop due to the expansion of social distancing.

The support measures consist of four parts: ▲50% refund on advertising fees and commissions ▲support for Baemin Order payment commissions ▲support for new business owners’ supplies ▲rider support. First, the advertising fee and commission refund targets small businesses with annual total sales of 300 million KRW or less. Baemin will support 50% of August Ultra Call advertising fees, Open List commissions, Baemin Riders commissions, etc., for stores that fall under this category. The maximum refund amount per store is 150,000 KRW. Approximately 110,000 stores are expected to qualify, with an estimated support amount of 11 billion KRW.

In line with the quarantine authorities’ guidelines encouraging food packaging and delivery, support measures have also been prepared for merchants registered with 'Baemin Order.' Baemin Order is a non-face-to-face order and payment service launched by Baemin in November last year, allowing customers to pre-order and pay for menu items via the app and then pick them up. Since there is no face-to-face contact during ordering and payment, it has been recognized as a useful service amid the recent strengthening of social distancing. Baemin Order has been operating without order mediation commissions during the pilot period until the end of this year. This support measure involves Woowa Brothers covering the external payment fees (3%) that restaurants pay to card companies or electronic payment gateway (PG) companies when customers order and pay through Baemin Order. Woowa Brothers will return all external payment fees incurred through Baemin Order to each restaurant as Biz Points until the end of the year. Restaurants can use Biz Points to pay for advertising fees or purchase necessary supplies at Baemin Sanghoe, a specialized food ingredient shopping mall for self-employed business owners.

The support for new business owners’ supplies is designed for restaurants entering the delivery business for the first time. Woowa Brothers will provide a coupon worth 100,000 KRW to all new business owners starting delivery by the end of September. Owners can use this coupon to purchase containers, ingredients, and other necessary items for food delivery at Baemin Sanghoe.

Support measures for riders delivering food amid the COVID-19 spread, heatwaves, and heavy rains will also be implemented. Woowa Brothers will pay a gratitude fee of 500,000 KRW to riders who have worked for Baemin Riders for one year (200 days) or more. The total number of eligible riders is 518.

Kim Beom-jun, CEO of Woowa Brothers, said, "We have prepared support measures to contribute to the national efforts to prevent the spread of infectious diseases, and to help restaurant owners worried about customer decline and riders working hard in the heat, even if only a little. We will continue to develop services through Baemin to make social distancing somewhat less inconvenient and to ease restaurant owners’ concerns about sales decline."

Woowa Brothers also announced support measures during the first half of this year amid the COVID-19 spread, including ▲50% refund on advertising fees and commissions for March and April (41.3 billion KRW) ▲interest support for policy loans to small restaurant business owners (5 billion KRW) ▲meal coupon support for socially vulnerable groups (3 billion KRW) ▲support for medical staff and children in need (2 billion KRW). The total amount supported by Woowa Brothers this year to overcome COVID-19 amounts to 66.4 billion KRW.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.