SEOUL, KOREA - As the market for food delivery apps has grown to the level of 1 trillion won a year, competition within the industry is getting fiercer day by day. In a situation where the top-three operators including Yogiyo, Nation of Delivery, and Baedal Tong account for 90 percent of the market, other new entrants like Ticket Monster and incumbent mobile telecom operators are knocking on the door to the potentially lucrative market.

 

Nation of Delivery, the No. 1 food delivery app, has seen its app download number surpass the 10-million level in March this year for the first time in the industry. Its monthly visitor number is more than 2 million. According to the May unique visitor numbers compiled by Nielsen Koreanclick, Nation of Delivery saw its monthly number rise 25 percent to 2.1 million from the previous month. This is twice higher than that for the No. 2 player. In the same month, Yogiyo and Baedal Tong logged in 1.2 million and 750,000 unique visitor numbers, respectively.

 

Recently, new players have emerged in the food delivery app market. Ticket Monster, one of the major social commerce operators, launched in May its own food delivery service. The number of restaurants under agreement with Ticket Monster is 3,000. LG U+, meanwhile, has provided food ordering systems to member restaurants in partnership with Cheol-gabang, a latecomer in the food delivery app business.

 

The existing companies are trying to expand their business area away from food. For example, Nation of Delivery recently announced it would deliver flowers, dry-cleaned clothes, and packages in addition to restaurant food.