It’s time to have some meal. But what do you want to eat? Cooking at home is sometimes tired and maybe you are not good at cooking as well, you may think of having Japanese Ramen, Korean Fried Chicken, Taiwanese bubble milk tea. Thanks to the Food Delivery Service, people can enjoy their meal by clicking on their phone and waiting for just a few minutes, people can enjoy their cuisine everywhere they want. The best part is people don’t either have to go outside.
Source from Statista
In Japan, the revenue of platform-to-consumer food delivery was US$ 1038 million in 2019, which was 17% growth compared to the previous year. The market has been growing with more and more options, such as the wide expansion of international players like UberEats, applying their already existing ride-hailing infrastructure, and successful operation case in many Asian countries.
Compared to other countries, although Japan has fewer user penetration, ranking 37 in the world with 7.4%, the revenue has achieved US$1,320 million which is the top 5 countries after China, United States, India, United Kingdom. For the food delivery service, the main customers are age between 15-29 males in 32% and 30-49 males with 15-29 females in 14%.
TOP 3 Food Delivery Service platform in Japan
With the world on pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic, lots of businesses were temporarily closed and asked to stay at home and self-isolate. People restrict to go outside. The frequency of using food delivery service is also significantly increasing at this time.
Foreigners can also use those applications easily, the service can pay by cash, credit card, and third-party payment service. In Japan, the biggest food delivery services are Demae-Kan(出前館)、Rakuten Delivery (楽天Delivery) and UberEats.
Demae-Kan
Demae-kan has more than 20,000 cooperation restaurants. The service is a national wide with a variety of choices. However, Demae-kan was originally partner with chain stores and restaurants/shops which should have their delivery capability to deliver food. To solve this problem, Demae-kan has started a new delivery share service called Share Deli (シャアデリ) to expand its service.
Rakuten Delivery
Rakuten is famous for its points system which attracts people to use their product and increasing loyalty. Rakuten Delivery cooperates with 10,000 restaurants, it even has Rakuten Delivery Premium for providing high-end meal service.
UberEats
UberEats, an American company, starts the service in Japan from 2016 and gets much attention for its novel service model. UberEats is also familiar with Japanese customer behavior and traditional customs. It also launched a campaign for traditional Japanese events such as Ohanami, people don’t need to prepare lunch boxes but enjoy delicious food during the celebration. UberEats had increased its partner with Japanese restaurants and shops to 14,000 in three years. Once your order is on the way, people can even track it via GPS and see the estimated arrival time on the app.
Conclusion
Business is changing. After coronavirus pandemic, internet service has accelerated increasing. The food delivery service becomes bigger and bigger. Consumers may turn to try new services and adopt new behavior in the changing business environment. As a foreign company such as UberEats, it enters the market with a good localization strategy. They may face lots of challenges and competition, finding out the proposition and creating a unique business model is very important to do localization.