Delivery Fees Too Expensive to Use? ... Significant Differences in Decline of Delivery App Users

Baemin User Decline Rate in Single Digits
Yogiyo Over 20%, Coupang Eats Over 50%

Recently, despite the overall decrease in users of delivery applications (apps) due to the endemic phase of infectious diseases, high inflation, and resistance to rising delivery fees, the 'quality of crisis' experienced by the three major companies is completely different. Compared to when the delivery market was booming, the user decline rate of Baedal Minjok (Baemin), the industry leader, was only in the single digits. However, Yogiyo exceeded 20%, and Coupang Eats surpassed 50%. Baemin is further widening the gap and solidifying its dominant position.

On the 14th, data company IGAWorks announced that the number of Baemin users (MAU, monthly active users) on Android and iPhone (iOS) smartphones last month was 19.55 million. The number of Yogiyo and Coupang Eats users was 6.68 million and 3.23 million, respectively. The total number of delivery app users was 22.66 million, which is 2.1 million fewer than the 24.76 million recorded in December 2021, the highest so far.

The number of delivery app users is decreasing due to the endemic phase and controversies over high delivery fees. However, there is a significant difference in the scale of user decline among the three major companies. Although the market is shrinking overall, the impact on each company varies. In December 2021, when COVID-19 peaked due to the Omicron variant and delivery demand surged, Baemin had 20.74 million users. Compared to last month’s figure, the decline rate is 5.8%. In contrast, Yogiyo and Coupang Eats showed decreases of 26.2% and 54.0%, respectively. In terms of numbers, while Baemin lost 1.19 million users, Yogiyo had to endure a loss of 2.37 million users, and Coupang Eats saw a decrease of 3.79 million users. Users tend to install multiple delivery apps and selectively use them depending on the situation, so the smaller the existing user base, the greater the churn.

Looking at monthly new installations by age group, more than 500,000 new users have been joining Baemin every month this year. The number of users in their 20s is increasing by more than 200,000 each month. Although the app churn rate slightly rose to 15.14% in March, it has since decreased to 13.55% in April and 12.15% in May. The May churn rate is 1.11% lower than the previous year.

Each company’s strategy inevitably differs. Yogiyo and Coupang Eats focus on actively acquiring users. However, Baemin is concentrating on retention. For example, in response to Yogiyo’s subscription product 'YogipassX,' which offers free delivery benefits, and Coupang Eats’ discount services for 'Wow Membership' subscribers, Baemin distributes discount coupons. Subscription products are a means to recruit new users, whereas coupon discounts benefit all users. An industry insider said, "Each company has recently introduced various strategies to reduce the perceived delivery fee, but given the market situation, it is difficult to continue cutthroat competition. They will diversify their strategies to find ways to overcome growth stagnation."

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