At Xiaoying Yuemao Shopping Center in Dongsheng Town, Haidian District, Beijing, a food delivery worker picks up food from the takeaway pickup area of a Yunnan-style restaurant. Xinhua News Agency reporter, Photograph Ren Chao
Takeaway, "mukbang", gourmet "delivery" programs… China’s food and catering industry has been transforming and upgrading through "Internet +", constantly expanding its diverse consumption scenarios. With the increasingly complete "one-stop" service of online food, "foodies" can immerse themselves in the online food economy and enjoy a lot.
Online catering ushered in a different business opportunity
Affected by the epidemic, Chinese catering companies have turned to online platforms and ushered in a different "spring". The "Research on the Effect of Takeaway Business on the High-quality Development of the Catering Industry" recently released by the Research Institute of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade shows that the contribution rate of takeaway to the income of the catering industry has increased significantly. 75% and 65% of the increase in total revenue and total profit of the catering industry are driven by takeout respectively.
The study shows that the takeaway business has cultivated consumers and created more market opportunities for the catering industry from the demand side. According to the survey, 54.95% of the surveyed consumers said that they have increased their weekly food and beverage spending because of the takeaway service. The takeaway business is changing the profit landscape of the catering industry, enabling the catering industry to create a new profit growth engine beyond dine-in. iiMedia Consulting forecasts that the size of China’s online takeaway market is expected to reach 664.62 billion yuan this year.
"The Internet has broken our understanding of food and catering. Understanding and using the level of the Internet will make restaurants of the same level go to different inflection points," some experts said. During the epidemic prevention period, Meizhou Dongpo developed and sold dozens of new products such as self-heating hot pot and convenient noodles, and realized the online retailing of catering. Through e-commerce, live broadcast, vegetable station APP, vegetable basket Mini Program, mini store, etc., the finished products and work in progress of the restaurant are sold directly to the community. "The change of catering enterprises depends on technology to achieve innovative development, so as to achieve online and offline integration of’catering without boundaries’." Wang Gang, founder and chairperson of Meizhou Dongpo Group, believes that the opportunity for the development of the entire Chinese food industry chain has arrived, and catering enterprises should accelerate the process of standardization, retailing, and online and offline integration.
Hexing Group’s Yoshinojia, DQ and other brand companies are also actively "saving themselves", such as establishing their own takeaway system, launching community marketing, and live streaming. "Epidemic is both an impact and a test for enterprises. Only by constantly adapting to social changes and adapting to new challenges can we find new development opportunities. Epidemic has accelerated my determination to lead the transformation and upgrading of enterprises." Hong Mingji, president of Hexing Group, said in an interview that he used to operate catering, but now he should transform into operating customers, so he will use live broadcasts and other means to interact with fans and customers in a variety of ways.
Food show spawns "food economy"
There have been a lot of food programs in the circle of fans recently. Generally speaking, they can be divided into three types: short videos showing the cooking process; documentaries with storytelling and humanistic feelings; and "mukbang" that has just emerged.
Brewing wine, making ramen noodles, boiling brown sugar, making pastries, roasting whole sheep… Li Ziqi toils, picks and cooks in the video program, patiently showing the production process of delicious food with traditional Chinese handicraft skills, and she has successfully made this calm food lifestyle into her own brand. The "Li Ziqi" brand shows strong delivery ability, and the food sold in the flagship store of the e-commerce platform often becomes a hit with Internet celebrities.
The food documentary has made many viewers immersed in the unique charm of Chinese cuisine, and it has also heated up food sales. Every time it is broadcast, it will lead to a rush to buy the same ingredients. Take the recent "Flavor World 2" produced by Tencent Video as an example. Whether it is Yunnan rose sauce, Beijing tahini sauce or Hunan chopped pepper sauce, the relevant ingredients of the documentary will be sold on the special page of the "Flavor World" of the e-commerce platform, and the sales volume will be considerable.
"The food show presents a lifestyle that awakens more taste buds. As long as you want to understand what the foodies want, the commercial value of the show will be there." Some netizens admitted.
"Mukbang" focuses on experiencing the process of eating. Recently, the takeaway platform joined hands with Internet celebrity live streaming host Li Jiaqi to open "mukbang". Pizza Hut, McDonald’s, Yonghe King and other catering brands participated, setting a record for sales exceeding 10 million in 5 minutes. It is reported that in this "mukbang", the organizers set the goal of delivering food to your door within half an hour, and fans will deliver it immediately as soon as they place an order. Industry insiders said that "mukbang" needs to fully connect the links of live broadcast, online takeaway platform, offline stores, delivery services and payment. Speed is the key to strengthening the experience of "mukbang" scenarios.
Guard "safety on the tip of your tongue"
With the continuous emergence of various new business formats, food safety issues have attracted more attention. Recently, the State Regulation for Market Regulation organized food safety supervision and sampling inspections, and sampled 1256 batches of samples of 22 categories of food such as edible agricultural products, meat products, and fruit products. The sampling results showed that 14 batches of food sold on e-commerce platforms were unqualified. The State Administration for Market Regulation has instructed relevant departments to check the flow of products and take measures such as removing unqualified products from shelves to control risks.
For food takeout, Hong Mingji proposes to use digital technology to build an "Internet +" supervision system to strengthen food safety supervision in the takeout industry. It is understood that Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hangzhou and Nanjing have piloted the "Food Safety Seal" project to ensure consumers’ "safety on the tip of the tongue".
"We must’fight to the death ‘for ingredients and raw materials. If we can’t even guarantee safety, we will be eliminated by the market sooner or later." Experts say that the epidemic will push the catering industry to reshuffle, and food safety and quality are the bottom line that catering companies must keep firmly. Food delivery platforms, merchants, consumers, and regulatory authorities must work together to create a benign "Internet + food catering industry" safety ecology.
"All’Internet + ‘must be calculated in the end. What problems do you help users solve, what value do you bring to users, and whether users are willing to pay for your value. User thinking is indispensable." Industry insiders say that only with good food quality and a standardized product system can it be possible to support the large-scale development of Internet catering. (Li Xueqin)