This photo taken March 1, 2022, shows a street of Jongno, central Seoul, amid the rapid spread of the more transmissible omicron variant. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, April 4 (Korea Bizwire) — One out of three restaurants in South Korea turned out to have used food delivery apps last year, a state think tank said Sunday.
According to a survey conducted by the Korea Rural Economic Institute of 3,198 eateries and bars across the country, the share of those who use delivery apps stood at 29.5 percent.
On average, they are paying delivery app costs of about 270,000 won (US$221) per month.
The share of restaurants using food delivery surged to 19.9 percent in 2020 when COVID-19 infections broke out, up from 6.2 percent in 2017, and shot up to about 30 percent last year when the virus spread rapidly.
By business type, fried chicken restaurants marked the highest delivery app usage rate at 85.7 percent.
Dine-in sales accounted for the largest share at 71.6 percent in the average revenue of restaurants, followed by take-out orders at 14.9 percent and delivery at 13.6 percent.
This indicates that despite the increase in the usage rate of food delivery apps, take-out sales are still higher than delivery sales. This is primarily due to the effect of cafes, for which the share of take-out customers is high.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
