Baedal Minjok to Eliminate Duplicate Store Listings... Ending 'Flag Planting' That Led to Cutthroat Competition

Notice of App UI Overhaul on the 31st
Prevention of Duplicate Exposure of Identical Stores
Integration of Store Delivery and Baemin Delivery Reviews
Ultracall Service to Be Phased Out Starting in April

Baedal Minjok is enhancing customer convenience by eliminating repetitive application (app) exposures of the same store. It plans to integrate the two usage tabs, 'Food Delivery' and 'Store Delivery,' into a single Food Delivery tab through a user interface (UI) overhaul. The 'Ultracall' service, which had been criticized for causing excessive cutthroat competition among store owners, will also be discontinued.

Woowa Brothers, the operator of Baemin, announced the app UI overhaul plan with these key points on the 31st.

Provided by Woowa Brothers

Kim Beom-seok, CEO of Woowa Brothers, said, "Our mission is to enable customers to place orders with minimal touches, that is, to simplify the ordering process," adding, "We will provide the customer ordering experience more conveniently and affordably than anyone else and put Baemin back on the growth track by 2025."

Same Stores Unified into One... "Increasing Convenience for Customers and Store Owners"

With this overhaul, stores with the same name and address will be unified into a single store. Previously on Baemin, even if stores had the same name and address, they were exposed separately depending on the delivery method products used by the store owners, such as Baemin Delivery (OD) and Store Delivery (MP), causing confusion among customers. Store owners also had to set up and manage two or more stores separately within the app.

When multiple exposures of the same store are unified into one, customers can check and order various delivery methods such as budget delivery, single-house delivery, store delivery, and pickup/visit all at once on the store detail screen without having to search and compare each delivery method separately. Only the store information, including delivery methods, is displayed on one screen, and the existing store delivery service operation remains unchanged.

Baemin App Store Duplicate Exposure Revamp. Provided by Woowa Brothers

Store owners will no longer need to perform cumbersome duplicate management tasks such as setting store and menu information, responding to reviews, and settlements separately; managing only one store information will make delivery operations much easier.

In particular, preventing duplicate exposure of stores with the same name and address will provide more exposure opportunities to other stores. Reviews and ratings accumulated separately in Store Delivery and Baemin Delivery will also be integrated, which is another opportunity. The store integration overhaul will be applied sequentially by region, starting with Sejong City on March 7.

'Ultracall,' Which Causes Store Owners' Cutthroat Competition, Also to Be Phased Out

The so-called 'flag planting' Ultracall service, where store owners paid a fixed subscription fee, will also be phased out regionally. Ultracall is a service where store owners pay a fixed cost to plant flags in desired areas and provide delivery services to customers in those areas, regardless of orders, which has been criticized for imposing fixed costs irrespective of order volume.

In particular, when competing stores plant flags in specific areas, other store owners have to engage in flag-planting competition in response. This issue has been raised in National Assembly audits and elsewhere, with criticisms that it causes excessive cutthroat competition among store owners and calls for the service's termination.

Woowa Brothers explained, "With this overhaul, the fixed cost burden on store owners will disappear, and consumer inconveniences such as duplicate exposures will also be resolved."

The integration of the Food Delivery tab and the termination of Ultracall will be applied sequentially by region starting April 1 this year, beginning with Gumi, Gyeongbuk; Dalseo-gu, Daegu; Gangnam-gu, Seoul; Seocho-gu, Seoul; and Sejong City.

A Woowa Brothers official said, "We will improve the Baemin app, which was complicatedly structured around delivery methods, into a more convenient app centered on menus and stores to enhance customer experience," adding, "We will continue to strive to become an app that users consistently choose by enhancing customer value."

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