Southeast Asian On-demand Food Delivery Growth Opportunities

Competitive Intensity Accelerates GrabFood’s, Foodpanda’s, and GoFood’s Bid at Market Concentration

This study assesses on-demand food delivery in Southeast Asia, with a focus on the platform-to-consumer segment. The key countries discussed are Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

On-demand food delivery is a door-to-door and online-to-offline service. Service operators integrate the value chains of catering merchants and consumers and seamlessly aggregate them on an online platform. Generally, service operators have their fleets (or delivery partners) for picking up takeaway orders from merchants and delivering them to consumers. Or, the platform provides takeaway order and payment systems, while catering merchants offer their delivery services. Consumers can also make payments through digital solutions and cash on delivery.

Penetration of internet and mobile applications is rising. In Southeast Asia, on-demand food delivery services are emerging, especially in urban areas, such as Bangkok, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing and dining restrictions accelerated on-demand food delivery services. The governments of Southeast Asian countries, including Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand, discourage dine-in meals, especially when the number of new cases increases.

Advantages offered by on-demand food delivery operators have increased user loyalty. Regardless of the weather and road conditions, on-demand food delivery is usually available and offers promotions and discounts. In addition, it is an all-in-one service that provides digital payment solutions and seamless last-mile delivery.

Abundant food and merchant choices have increased on-demand food delivery adoption. The platforms aggregate more merchants to provide higher geographic density coverage and diversified foods.

The on-demand food delivery market in Southeast Asia is highly concentrated. Main contributors include GrabFood (Grab), Foodpanda (Delivery Hero), and GoFood (Gojek). In 2021, GrabFood and Foodpanda faced aggressive market competition, especially in Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore. GoFood is a major participant in the Indonesian market. Other notable participants include Deliveroo in Singapore and Line Man in Thailand; ShopeeFood is an emerging vendor.

In the study, the analyst highlights the gross merchandise value (GMV) of on-demand food delivery and provides a forecast to 2030, based on the forecast discussion for Southeast Asia. In addition, the analyst defines current market trends, market share, SWOT analysis, value chain analysis, key service operator profiles, and future market trends.