Motorcycles operated by food delivery app Baedal Minjok are parked outside a delivery center in Seoul in this file photo taken on Dec. 29, 2020. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, April 8 (Korea Bizwire) – Transactions on online food delivery apps in South Korea last year soared to over 20 trillion won (US$17.9 billion), data showed Thursday, as stay-at-home practices amid the pandemic propelled demand for online services.
Total transactions on food delivery apps, such as Baedal Minjok, stood at 20.1 trillion won last year, up 43.5 percent from the previous year, according to the data from the Ministry of Science and ICT.
The latest data from the ministry’s survey on the broader online-to-offline industry comes as the COVID-19 pandemic limits in-person contact and accelerates the use of digital services.
Total transactions last year on online-to-offline service apps, which include hotel reservation to housekeeping services, reached 126 trillion won, up 29.6 percent from the previous year.
Total sales from companies that operate such services are estimated at 3.5 trillion won last year, up 18.3 percent from the previous year, while the total number of online-to-offline service workers stood at 580,000, up 8.1 percent over the same period.
The ministry added that a total of 678 companies in South Korea operated online-to-offline services last year, compared with 555 in 2019.
(Yonhap)
