Booming! Food Delivery Industry’s Rapid Growth under COVID Pandemic

As introduced in the previous blog, food delivery is becoming a more important source of income to the restaurants. Food service industry in Hong Kong is now putting more focus on their collaboration with the food delivery services. In fact, not only Hong Kong, the rapid growth of food delivery services due to the COVID pandemic can be seen all over the world. In the forecast by Statista, the German company specializing in market and consumer data, sales of online food delivery in the world would reach approximately 339 billion USD in 2022. Moreover, there would be an annual growth rate of 8.29%, which makes the sales reach as much as about 466 billion USD in 2026.

In this blog, we will take Deliveroo, a food delivery company launched in Hong Kong in 2015 and holding half of Hong Kong’s market share now, as an example to introduce the food delivery industry and consumers’ behavior in Hong Kong.

Market Trend and Consumer Insights of Food Delivery Market

According to the survey results of “Censuswide survey” (responded by 1,000 Hong Kong citizens) conducted in January 2021 and “the Share of Stomach report” (responded by 800 Hong Kong Deliveroo Customers) conducted in December 2021, the following characteristics of Hong Kong consumers can be concluded:

・”Meals” is a indispensable part of “Well-being” to Hong Kong citizens

71% of the respondents stated that “food plays an important role to mental health”, and 64% expressed that ordering from their favorite restaurants contributes to their feeling of happiness and sense of well-being.

・Healthiness and tastiness take priorities in Hong Kong citizens’ meal orders

65% of the respondents answered that they would like to manage their nutrition levels. People are more used to dining at home because of dining-in restrictions due to the pandemic. As a result, consumers’ priority of nutrition becomes higher compared to the past.

38% of the Hong Kong consumers see “flavor and taste” as the most important factor while they are choosing their delivery meals. 30% consider whether the meal fulfills their own dietary restrictions, while 26% expressed their eagerness for “meals prepared by specialized chefs”.

・Over half of the Hong Kong citizens getting more rely on delivery services

Since the COVID pandemic started, 78% of Hong Kong consumers order meals at least once a week through food delivery services. In 2020, the amount spent on food delivery services by Hong Kong citizens was 1,324 HKD a month, which grew 21% compared to 2019. 55% of Hong Kong consumers stated the frequency of ordering food delivery or take-out increased in the past 12 months, while 75% expressed that they would use food delivery services even more frequently than now in the future.

・Asian cuisines preferred by Hong Kong citizens

Among the world cuisines except Chinese ones, Hong Kong citizens’ favorite cuisines are Japanese cuisines (45%), Korean cuisines (36%) and Thai cuisines (22%). Hong Kong citizens enjoy their foreign cuisine meals as if they are traveling over the countries.

29% of the consumers stated their reason for online ordering as “many foreign cuisines could not be easily made at home”. On the other hand, there are 27% whose motive is to support their favorite restaurants which are suffering from the COVID restrictions, and 24% feel troublesome to cook at home by themselves.

・Tendency of online orders differs between weekdays and weekends

Orders on weekends are mostly within dinner time. As dinners are usually ordered by large groups, consumption price would be about 20% higher than lunch, while there would be a 10% additional increase comparing weekend orders to the weekday ones.

For weekdays, most orders are lunches during office and school lunch time, making meal boxes for individuals, especially Japanese “Bento”, a popular choice.

In the next blog, we are going to introduce ways to expand food services in Hong Kong by using online platforms such as Deliveroo.

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