Our reporter Xu Xiao
Recently, the express delivery giant SF Express launched the "Feng Shi" applet, and began to test the group meal delivery service of employees of the enterprise. Although SF Express said that the original intention of the "Feng Shi" online is to solve the dining problems of its own employees during the outbreak, but The launch of "Feng Shi" has aroused widespread concern: has SF arranged a take-out market from the entrance of the group meal, and is it three-pointed with Meituan and hungry?
The epidemic accelerates the development of group meals
With the increasing demand for working meals, the group meal model has become more and more popular, from the staff meals of large industrial enterprises, commercial institutions, government agencies and other associations, to the student meals of large, middle and primary schools, to transportation, public office buildings, Convention and exhibition catering supply and social meal delivery are important components of group meals.
It is understood that the development team of "Fengshi" is a SF one-stop team under SF Express City. The person in charge of SF Express said that this project did not even serve as the main business of SF Express, but only to solve the dining problems of employees within their own companies.
Open the "Feng Shi" applet, you can see that there are two functions of "Takeaway Order" and "Dinner Order". At present, Diners order is still in "Please look forward to", and takeout orders need to be certified as Only corporate users can place orders, and the reporter tried to register unsuccessfully. However, there are already a number of chain brands stationed on the Fengshi platform, including Dixie, Ajisen Ramen, Sibei, and Kung Fu.
Statistics show that the scale of the Chinese group meal market in 2019 will reach 1.5 trillion yuan, accounting for 33.23% of the entire Chinese restaurant market. It is expected that the scale of the Chinese group meal market will increase by 12.67% in 2020. By then, the total size of the group meal market in China will reach 1.69 trillion yuan, and the proportion of the catering market will increase to 35.65%. It is roughly estimated that the volume of group meals is about 6 times that of online takeout.
During the epidemic, enterprises resumed production and resumed production one after another, which gave birth to a new model and new demand for group meal delivery, such as: how to reduce the risk of infection during ordering and meal delivery, while meeting employee dining needs. The group meal of the enterprise has become a fragrant dish for many catering companies. Many restaurant companies such as real kung fu, fellow chicken, Xibei yumian village, Yunhai cuisine, and Fu Laomian have entered the group meal field.
In contrast, the advantage of SF's group meals is that it has its own distribution capabilities, and the large group of corporate users of SF Express's express business is more likely to form customer stickiness. For catering businesses, the intervention of SF Express will inevitably affect the current structure of the takeaway market, and the layered mechanism of the new platform will create more market opportunities.
However, some insiders believe that the recent rapid development of group meals is mainly driven by the epidemic situation. At present, there are many preferential policies. After everything is restored, dinning is still the first choice for enterprises.
SF Express intends to distribute business in all scenarios
Lin He, a seafood wholesale market in Dayang Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, began to habitually compare the delivery prices of the three platforms of SF, hungry and flash delivery when sending seafood to customers. "Sometimes using the SF corporate account can save more than 10 yuan." Lin He told the Workers Daily reporter that there are more and more SF brothers who distribute seafood in the market.
In March 2019, SF Express achieved independent corporate operation. On October 24 of the same year, it officially released the "SF Express Express" brand. This third-party real-time logistics platform, which specializes in professional customized services, is currently available for McDonald's, Xicha, and the seabed. Well-known catering businesses such as fishing and real kung fu bring great convenience.
In addition to providing agency services for food and beverage distribution scenarios, SF Express City Express' business has covered from food and beverage delivery, daily use of supermarkets, fresh vegetables and fruits, personal items collection, to the agency service of agency services, and continuously expand the service scene To meet the more diverse needs of users.
Compared with the traditional distribution business, the characteristics of the same-city immediate distribution demand in the business scenario are more distinctive. SF Express has the inherent advantage in the field of business distribution. Statistics show that SF Express has more than 1 million orders and more than 300,000 knights in the same city business, and has deployed in more than 200 cities such as Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
Sun Haijin, CEO of SF Express, once said bluntly, "The difference between SF Express and the same city lies in the fact that" other platforms do simple and standardized connections, and we can make N connections offline. This is the difference between us and takeaway platforms. "
Can takeaway world be three points
For Chinese people, the importance of takeaways is self-evident. Even during the epidemic, the takeaway platforms did not stop and took on the daily procurement tasks of isolated residents at home. China Internet Network Information Center released the 45th "Statistical Report on Internet Development in China", as of March 2020, China's online food delivery users reached 398 million, accounting for 44.0% of the total netizens; mobile online food delivery users reached 397 million , Accounting for 44.2% of mobile Internet users.
The takeaway market is full of smoke, and the competition between Meituan and Hungry has become more intense. In the first- and second-tier cities, Meituan ’s takeaway share reached 51.8%, and the starvation rate was 47.4%. The gap between the two further narrowed. Even for the giants in the takeaway industry, Meituan Dianping didn't start to turn a profit until it went public in 2019.
The competition in the take-out market is fierce, which has repeatedly triggered the war of burning money. In March 2018, Didi laid out nine major cities across the country, and started a takeaway business war with Meituan in the Yangtze River Delta to provide money-burning subsidies. But after about a year of exploration and exploration, Didi's food delivery is facing "shutdown and turn around."
It can be seen that even with a customer base and distribution channels, the takeaway market is not easy to get involved in. Regarding SF's entry into the take-out field, Ding Daoshi, a senior internet analyst, believes that SF has accumulated some experience in catering and distribution, including the previous responsibility for delivering Ruixing Coffee, which is an extension of the original business. Other companies are much stronger.
But the takeaway market seems beautiful, but in fact the dark tide is surging. Taking Meituan and Hungry as an example, it burned tens of billions of dollars and spent many years to "divide the world." Money is inevitable.
At present, it seems that SF takes the group meal as the entry point, but it is a smarter way. Choose a merchant with a certain brand awareness, the unit price of delivery is higher than that of other small restaurants, the quality is better, and the profit that may be obtained is guaranteed. If the group meal market can be successful, SF may also cut into personal meal delivery. However, after all, there is a difference between group meals and take-out. It is not known whether SF Express has really entered the take-out market, but at present it seems that there may be some pressure on Meituan and Hungry to add new changes to the take-out market.