Ahead of noon on any working day, most white collar Chinese go through elaborate pre-lunch rituals. Departing from their work stations and computer screens, some head to swanky ground floor kiosks that usually are a staple of a typical office complex in any metro in China, be it Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen or hundreds of other cities that fall in the tier-2 domain.
Bubble tea, for instance, is a big hit among those who are in need of a pre-lunch stretch-out. Young women usually queue up in larger numbers for the brew, which took root in Taiwan in the 1980s. Apart from a tea with a strong “body,” such as Assam tea, and liberal doses of milk, Bubble tea fans love the “pearls”— toppings such as chewy tapioca balls, along with sago seeds, or various kinds of fruit jellies, cream and an array of flavourings that go with it.
But many prefer to order food and drinks from their indoor comfort zones. Lukin coffee, a Chinese brand, now in fierce competition with Starbucks, is pushing back against its better known rival, by focusing on online delivery.
Tight deadlines
Unsurprisingly, the infusion of lunchtime hunger and online ordering is shifting tectonic plates elsewhere as well. By afternoon, food delivery personnel recklessly race along the busy streets to beat the clock to reach out to their demanding consumers. In the fiercely competent buyers’ market, failure to do so can be harsh on their wallets.
The online food delivery system has to conform to insanely tight deadlines. It is generally a thumb rule that deliveries within a 3-km radius must be completed in about half-an-hour, including cooking time. That usually puts enormous pressure on the drivers, who swarm the streets on their e-bikes — many sometimes meeting with serious accidents en route.
“I believe 80% of these accidents were caused by insufficient delivery time,” says Yu Yong, a delivery man, as quoted in the Nikkei Asian Review . “Only those who drive fast enough can make it.”
Some companies are known to fine drivers who fail to deliver on time, apart from paying 50 yuan (₹500) less, in case a customer decides to complain.
Attuned to a pervasive digital culture, China’s tech savvy generation-next is naturally drawn to ordering online. Orders are routed through an app, which lists restaurants close to the user’s location.
Clicking on the restaurant’s icon reveals the menu. The order is completed through online payments, through platforms such as WeChat or Alipay.
Customers can also use the app to track the location of the delivery man. Rating the food quality and service, which goes into an ever expanding database of the company, is also routine.
The food delivery boom has pitted two titans in China’s digital space — the Shenzhen-based Tencent Holdings, led by Pony Ma, and the Alibaba Group Holding, the brainchild of Jack Ma, the former company head, who championed e-commerce in China, against each other. Tencent backs the food delivery giant Meituan Dianping, while Alibaba steels its rival Ele.me.
The two big boys of the Internet have high stakes in the digital culinary business. Last year, China’s food delivery transactions totalled a hefty 500 billion yuan ($71 billion), according to investment bank Bernstein. By 2023, the market is expected to rise three times.
Both rivals also generate massive employment. Together, they employ at least 5.7 million delivery personnel, according to the Nikkei Asian Review .
For now, Meituan is the undisputed leader, with a 52% market share in the first half of this year, while Ele.me was behind with 43.9%, according to a market research firm.
But there is also a big downside to their success, evident in risks the drivers take to meet the exceptionally demanding delivery deadlines. Shanghai saw an average of two accidents involving delivery personnel every day in the first half of 2019, government data show.
The plight of the drivers grabbed headlines and critical comments after the two market leaders dispatched drivers in August in Shanghai amid Typhoon Lekima, the fifth-largest cyclone in Chinese history to hit the country’s commercial capital.
“Even airlines and train operators have to suspend their services during typhoons due to safety considerations. How can food delivery drivers withstand the threat of extreme weather?,” noted an article in the state-owned Guangming Daily .
( Atul Aneja is The Hindu’s Beijing correspondent )
