[One Year of COVID-19] The Normalization of Delivery Apps and the Nationwide Expansion of Services

Dramatically Changed Food Culture... Expansion Beyond Menu and Regional Boundaries
Delivery Orders Increased by 134%, Coexistence of Companies and Riders Remains a Challenge

#.Office worker Kim Jeong-hee (alias) was recently surprised when checking her credit card payment history from last month. The amount paid through delivery applications (apps) had increased significantly. The delivery apps, which she frequently used to conveniently have contactless meals while working from home, had become the largest portion of her monthly food expenses. This also meant that delivery had become a significant part of daily life.

The novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) penetrated every corner of life over the course of a year, changing lifestyles themselves. The biggest change in food culture was that food delivery became a common service. Delivery services, which were previously limited to specific menus such as Chinese food, pizza, and chicken, now cover everything from traditional Korean set meals to chef-prepared dishes, with no menu left undeliverable. These services are widely used nationwide, regardless of whether in the metropolitan area or regional locations.

According to Mobile Index by big data company IGAWorks on the 19th, the monthly user count of Baedal Minjok (Baemin), the number one delivery app market leader, increased by 24.5% last year. It grew from 13.77 million users in January to 17.15 million in December, adding 3.38 million new users. The pursuit by latecomers is also fierce. Coupang Eats’ average daily users in December reached 460,000, a more than 15-fold increase compared to about 30,000 in January. Monthly users, which hovered around 260,000 in January, rose to 2.84 million in December, showing more than a tenfold increase. Moreover, Yogiyo, the market’s second place currently seeking a new owner, has monthly users reaching 7.74 million.

As users increased, the scale of the ‘delivery economy’ also expanded. First, the number of delivery orders surged. According to delivery agency Barogo, the nationwide delivery orders last year totaled 133.22 million, a 134.0% increase compared to the previous year. Among the 17 metropolitan cities and provinces, 12 saw more than double the orders compared to the same period last year, clearly showing the ‘nationalization’ of delivery services. Consequently, payment amounts through food delivery expanded to about 1.6 trillion KRW per month. This figure, based on the November online shopping trends by Statistics Korea, represents a 60.6% increase from the previous year.

The normalization of delivery due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic also led to the rise of riders as icons of platform labor. The industry estimates the number of riders working nationwide at about 200,000, more than doubling through the COVID-19 period. Riders are expanding their activities from food delivery to essentials and clothing delivery, newly establishing the frontline of the platform economy. Along with their rapidly growing role, many challenges surround delivery and riders. Representative issues include labor-management relations between riders and operating companies, delivery fees, and dispatch standards. Professor Lee Byung-hoon of Chung-Ang University’s Department of Sociology emphasized, "Finding ways for companies and riders to coexist and prosper together is this year’s challenge."

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