Restaurant Owners Desperate as Food Delivery Apps Bombarded with Registration Requests

A deliveryman is ready to depart from a restaurant in Seoul for the delivery of lunch boxes to office workers on Sept. 2, 2020, as tough social distancing guidelines are enforced amid the resurgence of COVID-19. (Yonhap)

SEOUL, Sept. 10 (Korea Bizwire) — As the coronavirus continues to rage on, an increasing number of small restaurants are jumping into the delivery business.

The phenomenon of an overwhelming number of businesses attempting to join delivery platforms is resulting in processing delays for each application.

Vroong, a food delivery platform, reported that the number of subscription inquiries from Aug. 16-29 was almost triple the total in the period from Aug. 2-15.

“It does take one or two more days compared to the pre-coronavirus era in getting in contact with the applying businesses,” said Mesh Korea, operator of Vroong.

Baemin, the country’s largest delivery platform, also reported a jump in affiliation inquiries in recent days.

Woowa Brothers Corp., the operator of South Korea’s top delivery app Baedal Minjok, or Baemin, reported a jump in affiliation inquiries, reaching 15,240 cases between Aug. 3-Sept. 4, up by 46.6 percent from the previous month.

Company officials argue that a surge in affiliation requests is resulting in delays to input menus on the delivery app.

Once a restaurant completes registration on Baemin, it takes about seven days for the restaurant to be exposed on the app.

“Now, though, the ensuing coronavirus spread is resulting in an almost two-week delay, including non-business days, to process each registration,” Woowa Brothers said.

H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)