Deep Dive: The online food delivery industry’s problem with profitability

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">At the end of 2019, Meituan-Dianping recorded close to US$400 million in net profits, with more than half of the company’s revenue coming from food delivery. Seeing as the online food delivery industry is notoriously a loss-making business, this came as quite a surprise.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">How did Meituan-Dianping succeed, when other players like US counterparts Uber and GrubHub are still struggling? Can other online food delivery players replicate its success?</span> <em style= "font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;"> Tech in Asia</em> <span style= "font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;"> reporter Putra Muskita answers these questions and more on this month’s</span> <em style= "font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;"> Deep Dive</em><span style= "font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;">.</span></p> <p><span style= "font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;"> More information on this episode here: <a href= "https://www.techinasia.com/deep-dive-online-food-delivery-industrys-problem-profitability"> https://www.techinasia.com/deep-dive-online-food-delivery-industrys-problem-profitability</a></span></p> <p><strong>Episode Sponsor:</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">To better navigate the challenges of humanizing a brand and its customer engagement, Jean Thomas, chief marketing officer at Pomelo Fashion, and Kenneth Soo, Asia-Pacific team lead for customer success at Braze, will share tips and tricks that businesses can use to interact with their customers in