Seoul’s angels: South Korea food delivery giants rev up rider race amid coronavirus boom
SEOUL (Reuters) – In South Korea, some of the world’s biggest food delivery firms are scrambling to surf an estimated $4 billion wave of new orders, contracting thousands of new riders in a boom triggered by the scourge of the global economy – the coronavirus pandemic.
Koreans had already developed such an appetite for meal deliveries that the country ranked third in the world last year for food order services, according to consultancy Euromonitor. Now, tough social distancing rules and work-from-home policies to counter the pandemic have fuelled explosive growth.
South Korea’s food delivery market is expected to jump 40% this year to around $15.4 billion from $11 billion in 2019, Euromonitor data showed, topped only by China and the United States.
Surging coronavirus-era consumer demand
