Tablet order system by t’order (Screenshot captured from t’order website)
Delivery Hero-backed Baemin, the top food delivery platform in South Korea, and the country’s leading travel and accommodation booking platform operator Yanolja Co. have thrown down the gauntlet to win the automated meal ordering market currently dominated by smaller startups.
Yanolja announced on Thursday that it has upgraded ‘yaorder,’ a mobile ordering system developed by its subsidiary Yanolja F&B Solution, to enable dinners to use it to order meals at the tableside in a restaurant.
Baemin and Korea’s leading financial super-app Toss operator Viva Republica Inc. have also joined Yanolja in a race for the country’s tableside meal-ordering market.
Korea’s big platform companies are rushing to enter the self-serve meal-ordering market as they anticipate the related market’s rapid growth amid rising labor costs in the country mainly due to the high minimum wage.
The global automated meal-ordering market is forecast to grow to $21.4 billion in 2027 from $12.8 billion in 2021, according to Statista.
(Graphics by Dongbeom Yun)
The Korean tableside meal-ordering market is expected to grow to over 1 trillion won ($752 million) annually in the mid to long term from about 100 billion won now, according to the country’s food and beverage industry.
ROOM TO GROW
t’order Inc., a Korean startup commanding more than 60% of the country’s tableside meal-ordering market, saw last year’s revenue up 77% to 58.7 billion won from the prior year.
There is still room for growth in the market considering that the country’s adoption rate of automated meal-ordering systems is less than 10%.
“It costs more than 2 million won for a month to hire one employee but it costs less than 30,000 won per tablet or nearly none to set up QR codes for self-serve meal ordering at the tableside,” said an official from the Korean F&B Industry.
Yanolja’s ‘yaorder’ does not require separate devices like kiosk machines or tablets because it is based on QR code scanning or near-field communication (NFC) tagging for contactless meal ordering.
(Courtesy of News1 Korea)
Restaurants using ‘yaorder’ need to have only QR code or NFC tag stickers on tables, which require minimal upfront costs, said Yanolja, expecting strong demand for its self-serve meal ordering system.
Baemin also plans to officially roll out a QR code-based tableside meal-ordering system called ‘Baemin Order’ next week.
In March, Viva Republica’s subsidiary Toss Place introduced a QR code-integrated tableside meal-ordering service.
The country’s top mobile carriers such as KT Corp. and LG Uplus Corp. have also joined the market.
NEW REVENUE SOURCE
With big platform companies joining the market, the Korean tableside meal-ordering market is expected to be reshaped.
The market is currently dominated by smaller startups such as market leader t’order and menuit Inc.
Meal-ordering kiosk (Courtesy of News1 Korea)
“If big platform companies succeed in providing better services backed by their massive data and capital, they could snatch the crown from smaller players and take the lead in the market,” said an F&B industry observer.
Their foray into the automated meal-ordering market is also part of their effort to find a breakthrough amid intensifying competition in the app-based food delivery and accommodation booking markets.
Baemin will strive to create synergy between its online and offline services with the automated meal-ordering system to fend off the rapidly ascending cross-town food delivery rival Coupang Eats.
Its tableside meal-ordering system users will be able to use Baemin’s digital reward points and gift cards at offline restaurants.
Yanolja, closely chased by local booking app latecomer Yeogi Eottae, will accelerate the diversification of its business portfolio by adding the F&B business.
By Sun A Lee and Eun-Yi Ko
suna@hankyung.com
Sookyung Seo edited this article.
